If my bank account is garnished and I have CD’s at that bank, would they be affected by the garnishment?

“If my bank account is garnished and I have CD’s at that bank, would they be affected by the garnishment?”

The short answer to that is yes. If you’re being garnished (you have a judgment against you) and your bank account is being garnished, then the fact that you have CD’s there, well they’re going to be garnished as well.

Basically, any type of bank account can be garnished after a judgment unless it is any type of exempt funds such as Social Security.

If the CD is made up of exempt money, then those CD’s should be protected.

In other words, if we look at the CD, imagine we kind of break it open and say “What went into the CD?” You go “Oh, that was when I got my lump sum from SSDI for my disability.  All that money that I received went into the CD.”

If you can show that’s the case, then your money (CD) should be protected. You’ll need let the judge know, either through your lawyer or on your own if you’re handling
it yourself that, “Hey, these are exempt funds.”

You should also let your bank know, let the court know, let the other side, the collection lawyer know.  Let everyone know is the point. . . .

“Hey wait a minute. Don’t touch my CD number 12345 because those are exempt funds. Here’s the proof of what went into those.”

Of course, we want to avoid a judgment so we can avoid garnishments.  But if you have a judgment, hopefully this helps you understand some of your options to protect a CD.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.

We’d be glad to help you in any way we can, especially before you’re hit with a judgment.

You can reach us by phone at 1-205-879-2447, or you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you quickly.

We look forward to chatting with you!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

John Watts