Residency Requirements to Claim Head of Household Wage Garnishment Exemption

Florida Statute 222.11 prohibits a creditor from garnishing the earnings of a debtor who qualifies as head of household. Florida residents working in another state are unable to enforce this garnishment exemption in foreign state courts because the law does not permit debtors to export Florida’s exemptions.

But, is the reverse also true? Can the resident of a foreign state assert a head of household garnishment exemption in a Florida wage garnishment proceeding?

For example, suppose a judgment debtor resides in Wisconsin with his family. A creditor holds a Wisconsin judgment against the client. The client works for a Florida company with no Wisconsin offices. The client is concerned that the creditor could domesticate the judgment in Florida and seek an order of continuing wage garnishment through Florida’s courts against his Florida employer. Under Florida law, the client would qualify as head of household because he supports his family.

The answer is that a judgment debtor does not need to reside in Florida to claim the head of family exemption to wage garnishment. A recent court decision concluded in favor of a foreign state debtor. The court said that the debtor need not be a resident of Florida to assert head of household protection in a wage garnishment proceeding in a Florida court.

The court found that the wage garnishment statute used to require that the head of the household debtor “reside in this state.” The residence requirement was deleted from the statute in a 1993 amendment. The court decided that the legislature’s intentional deletion of the description of debtors as residing in the state expresses the intent of the legislature that both residents and non-residents may assert the head of household exemption from wage garnishment.