Garnishments

Understanding Garnishments

OPA receives income executions against City employees from City Marshals and the City's Office of the Sheriff. If OPA receives an income execution against you, the City will garnish 10% of your gross salary and give it to the City Marshal or Sheriff, unless a lower amount is specified in the income execution, and deductions will continue until the total amount is collected or in the event that OPA receives instructions from the City Marshal or Sheriff to release or suspend an Income Execution.

The total garnishment is the principal amount owed plus interest, a poundage fee of 5%, and filing fees. The interest is calculated from the date listed on the execution (from the date of judgment) and recomputed daily as long as there is a balance owed. The current interest rate is 9%.

Learn more about City Marshalls
Visit the City's Office of the Sherriff

Disagreeing with the Garnishment

City Marshals and the Sheriff will notify you when your pay is to be garnished. If you disagree with the garnishment, you can file an Order to Show Cause with the appropriate court. After receiving instructions from the Sheriff or Marshal, OPA will suspend the distribution of your deductions until further instructions are received from the City Marshal or Sheriff. OPA does not accept or interpret Court documents.

Subsequent to the filing of an Order to Show Cause, you should follow up with the court to ensure it is acted upon within 90 days. If OPA does not receive notification regarding the disposition of the Order to Show Cause, the deductions may start again after 90 days.

Depending on the outcome of the Court's ruling on the Order to Show Cause, the City Marshal or Sheriff may instruct OPA to release all pending deductions to you, or, if the court determines that the garnishment should remain in effect, to remit your deductions to the City Marshal or Sheriff. The deductions will continue until the remainder of the garnishment is paid.

Once an Income Execution has been rescinded by a City Marshal or Sheriff, OPA will refund any monies on hand. The refund will be added to the next earliest possible payroll check you receive. The City Marshal or Sheriff may also have monies to be returned to you. Those monies are returned to OPA. OPA will record the refund and promptly reimburse the monies to you as an addition to the next earliest possible payroll check you receive.

To inquire about whether or not you are due a refund, you may contact the City Marshal, the Sheriff or contact OPA at 212-669-8555.

Find out more about the NYS Unified Court System

Record of Garnishments

The amount deducted for the garnishment is indicated on your pay statement. Your pay statements are the best source of information about a garnishment; keep them for your records.

To better understand your pay statement go to Pay Statement Explained.