If the garnishment concerns a judgment against an employee/vendor of the Association, then the Association’s only concern is with ensuring that it is properly withholding from distribution to that employee/vendor the portion of the payment which is subject to garnishment. In other words, the Association is not responsible for disputing the validity of the judgment or defending its employee/vendor against garnishment.
In order to properly withhold garnished funds, the Association must determine if there is any money owed to the person and calculate the amount to be withheld based on State and Federal guidelines and then file an Answer to the Writ of Garnishment. Normally the Association seeks the help of its payroll coordinator and attorney in determining the amount to withhold and the nature of the Answer to be filed.
The key with garnishment in this setting is that if the Association does not garnish the funds immediately, it could be held financially responsible for the entire amount of the judgment along with interest and anym other sanctions the Court imposes. To avoid such a liability shift, the Association must begin withholding the proper funds essentially from the day the Writ of Garnishment is served even if the Answer has not yet been filed and even if the employee/vendor indicates there is an error, that they are disputing the judgment, that they will not work if the money is garnished, or more significantly that they cannot pay their bills unless they get their entire paycheck. All of those arguments are to be made by the employee/vendor to the Court and the Court will determine if garnishment is proper. The Association simply has no choice in the matter and failing to garnish places a financial burden on the Association.
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