VPRS 5284 Court of Petty Sessions Debt Attachment Book

This series was used to record the process of debt attachment. Debt attachment is a procedure where an individual who has won a legal action (and has effectively become a creditor) against another (who has effectively become a debtor) can apply to have any unpaid monies owing to the debtor from another party (known as a garnishee) paid directly to him to the value of the judgement debt. Examples of debt attachment includes instances were the creditor seeks to obtain rent, wages or bank interest/investments due to the debtor. The creditor can also apply to have chattels owed by the debtor seized and sold through the issue of a warrant of distress. Entries in the debt attachment were made across a folio. The left hand page records information about the order seeking the debt attachment. This includes, the case number of the original action, the names of the complainant and defendant, the amount of the original order remaining unpaid, the name of the garnishee, the amount of debt attached from the garnishee and remarks. The right hand page records information about the date of service of the attachment order, how it was served, amount paid by the garnishee, the issue of any warrants of distress and orders made as a result of the garnishee disputing his liability.