Thanks to Representative Dvorak for his update on the Commission on Courts’ latest meeting and, in particular, the garnishee defendant issue. The short version of that issue is that the General Assembly passed a fee increase for small claims and plenary civil cases which requires an additional $10 for each additional defendant. So, a small claims case with one defendant is $70, two defendants is $80, etc. The question is whether a “garnishee defendant” (usually an employer named after judgment is entered for the purpose of garnishing the wages of the original defendant) is a defendant for which a $10 fee must be paid before being added to the suit.
According to Rep. Dvorak, the Attorney General has provided a preliminary opinion that concludes:
Based on the garnishee defendant’s role as a “defendant†outside of the original action, the garnishee defendant is named as the holder of wages or funds for the defendant that are subject to claims of the plaintiff. Our preliminary research would indicate that the “garnishee defendant†is not a “judgment defendant†to the original action and therefore the fees assessed to such defendants would not apply to the garnishee.
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