Florida Debt Collection Laws: The $750 Head of Family Rule, Garnishment, and Debt Time Limits

No creditor in Florida can start taking your paycheck just because a debt is unpaid. With narrow exceptions such as child support, tax debts, and federally garnished student loans, a collector must first sue you, win a judgment, and then obtain a writ of garnishment from the court. That sequence matters, because the most common route to a garnished paycheck is a default judgment entered after the borrower ignored the lawsuit. Answering the summons, even without a lawyer, is the single most valuable step you can take, and Florida's head of family exemption gives many workers a complete defense once they claim it.

How Wage Garnishment Works in Florida

For most workers who are not supporting dependents, Florida follows the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act limits: a judgment creditor can take no more than the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, which is $217.50 a week at the current $7.25 federal rate. Disposable earnings are what remains after legally required deductions such as taxes and Social Security, not after voluntary deductions like insurance or a 401(k).

The far more important rule is Florida's head of family exemption in section 222.11. A head of family is any natural person providing more than one-half of the support for a child or other dependent. For that person, all disposable earnings at or below $750 a week are completely exempt from garnishment. Earnings above $750 a week can be garnished only if the person "has agreed otherwise in writing," and the statute makes that waiver hard to hide: it must be a separate document, in at least 14-point type, signed and dated by both the consumer and the creditor, and it must contain the statutory warning that income may be exempt for anyone providing more than half the support of a child or dependent. A waiver clause buried inside the loan paperwork does not satisfy section 222.11(2)(b).

How to claim the exemption: the 20-day deadline

The exemption is not automatic. When a writ of garnishment issues, the clerk attaches a notice listing the available exemptions, with the head of family exemption first. Under section 77.041, you must file a sworn, notarized claim of exemption within 20 days after receiving that notice. The creditor then has 8 business days from hand delivery, or 14 business days from mailing, to serve a sworn written statement contesting your claim. If it misses that deadline, no hearing is required and the clerk must automatically dissolve the writ.

Older articles and form packets still describe an affidavit procedure under section 222.12. That statute has been repealed. The 20-day sworn claim under section 77.041 is the current route, and relying on the old procedure can cost you the exemption.

Federal law adds one more protection: an employer may not fire you because your earnings were garnished for any one debt, under 15 U.S.C. 1674. Whether Florida law extends that protection beyond a single debt is not addressed by the statutes reviewed for this article.

Bank Account Protections

A judgment creditor can also serve a writ of garnishment on your bank. Florida gives garnished bank accounts several layers of protection:

• Earnings that were exempt as head of family wages remain exempt for 6 months after deposit into a financial institution, as long as the funds can be traced and identified. Commingling with other money does not automatically defeat the exemption under section 222.11(3).
• Federal benefits such as Social Security are protected by federal law, and banks must automatically shield an amount equal to the last two months of directly deposited federal benefits under 31 CFR Part 212 before freezing anything.
• Section 222.25 exempts a debtor's interest in a single motor vehicle up to $5,000, prescribed health aids, and the traceable deposit of an earned income tax credit refund. It also provides a $4,000 personal property wildcard, but only for debtors who do not claim or receive the benefits of a homestead exemption, and the wildcard does not apply against support debts.

Like the wage exemption, bank exemptions must be claimed through the same sworn claim of exemption process, on the same clock.

How Long Collectors Have to Sue: Florida's Statute of Limitations

Florida's core deadlines for debt lawsuits sit in section 95.11:

• Written contracts: 5 years, under section 95.11(2)(b).
• Oral contracts, open accounts, and store accounts: 4 years, under section 95.11(3)(j).

A citation note worth knowing: section 95.11 has been restructured by recent amendments, so the subsection numbers do not all line up with older write-ups. The four-year rule for a contract, obligation, or liability not founded on a written instrument, for the sale and delivery of goods, and for store accounts is in section 95.11(3)(j). Subsection (4) of the current statute is a different, narrower rule: a three-year period for an action to collect medical debt for services rendered by a facility licensed under chapter 395, running from the date the facility refers that debt to a third party for collection.

Promissory notes also take the 5-year written contract period. Florida's version of the Uniform Commercial Code, section 673.1181, expressly defers to chapter 95 rather than setting a separate 6-year note deadline. Where credit card debt falls is genuinely contested: Florida courts have litigated whether a card account is founded on a written instrument (5 years) or is an account subject to the 4-year rule, and the answer can turn on what documents the collector can produce. Do not assume either period applies to a card debt without advice on the specific facts.

Florida sits on the strict end of the revival spectrum. Under section 95.04, an acknowledgment of a time-barred debt, or a promise to pay it, must be in writing and signed by the person to be charged. A partial payment by itself does not restart the clock the way it does in states like Kansas. Expiration of the deadline does not erase the debt, though: it removes the collector's ability to sue, but the debt still exists, and negative credit reporting runs on its own separate clock of roughly 7 years under federal law.

For deadlines on other kinds of Florida lawsuits, see the Florida statute of limitations guide.

Rules Debt Collectors Must Follow

Third-party collectors working Florida debts are bound by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: no harassment, no false statements about what they can do, no contact at unreasonable hours, and validation information when they first contact you. Under Regulation F, 12 CFR 1006.26, a debt collector must not sue or threaten to sue on a time-barred debt at all. Asking you to pay voluntarily remains legal, which is exactly why a small payment or a signed acknowledgment on very old debt is dangerous in states where it revives the claim; in Florida, only a signed writing does that, but a written acknowledgment can be as simple as a signed hardship letter, so be careful what you sign.

Florida adds its own layer through the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act, sections 559.55 through 559.785, and it is broader than the federal act in the way that matters most to readers. Section 559.72 opens "In collecting consumer debts, a person may not," and "a person" is not limited to the third-party collectors the FDCPA regulates. The definition of debt collector in section 559.55 excludes an officer or employee of a creditor collecting debts in the creditor's own name, so an original creditor that harasses you can sit outside the federal act while still answering to section 559.72.

The Florida list of prohibited conduct also covers ground the federal act does not squarely reach. Section 559.72(4) bars communicating or threatening to communicate with your employer before final judgment, unless you gave written permission, you acknowledged the debt in writing after it was placed for collection, or the statement is only a warning that your employer will be contacted once a judgment is obtained. Section 559.72(9) bars claiming, attempting, or threatening to enforce a debt when the person knows the debt is not legitimate, or asserting a legal right the person knows does not exist.

Enforcement is private. Under section 559.77 you may sue for actual damages plus additional statutory damages the court may allow, up to $1,000, together with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees, and the court may award punitive damages and injunctive relief. That action must be commenced within 2 years after the date the alleged violation occurred, which is a shorter clock than the deadline to sue on the debt itself.

One scope point on time-barred debt: Regulation F binds FDCPA debt collectors, so it does not by its own terms reach an original creditor suing on its own stale account. Section 559.72(9) is the Florida hook in that situation, though it turns on what the creditor knew about the claim, so it is a fact question rather than an automatic violation. Separately, a consumer collection agency generally may not do business in Florida without registering under chapter 559, part VI, and section 559.553 exempts original creditors from that registration requirement. That is one more reason the practice rules in section 559.72, rather than the registration list, are what protect you from a creditor collecting its own debt.

Car Repossession in Florida

Florida follows the standard self-help rule in section 679.609: after default, a lender may take possession of the collateral without going to court, but only if it can do so without a breach of the peace. What counts as a breach of the peace is defined by Florida case law rather than the statute, but physical confrontation, breaking into a locked garage, or continuing over your on-the-spot objection are the classic danger zones.

No general statute requiring a pre-repossession notice or right-to-cure period was identified in the Florida statutes reviewed for this article. Whether Florida's retail installment sales law or your own contract adds notice obligations in a particular case is a question worth putting to a lawyer before assuming the lender did everything correctly. After the sale, the lender must dispose of the vehicle in a commercially reasonable way, and any deficiency lawsuit against you is itself subject to the limitation periods above.

If You Are Being Garnished or Sued in Florida

Move in this order. First, answer the lawsuit before the deadline in the summons; a default judgment forfeits every defense, including the statute of limitations. Second, if a garnishment has already issued, file the sworn claim of exemption within 20 days, especially if you provide more than half the support for a child or dependent, because the head of family exemption can stop the garnishment entirely. Third, if a default judgment was entered against you without proper notice, ask the court about vacating it. Fourth, if the debt is old, check the dates before paying anything, and never sign an acknowledgment without understanding that a signed writing can revive an expired debt. Finally, if multiple judgments are stacking up, bankruptcy's automatic stay stops wage garnishment immediately, and Florida's generous exemptions carry into that process; see Florida bankruptcy laws for how that works.

Information last verified on 2026-08-12. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Related Resources

• Debt Collection Laws by State
• Statute of Limitations on Debt
• How to Stop Wage Garnishment
• Car Repossession Laws
• Florida Statute of Limitations
• Florida Bankruptcy Laws

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.

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