Attachment is a legal process by which a

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and carry out the administration of justice in Civil law (common law), civil, C ...

of law, at the request of a

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

, designates specific property owned by the

debtor A debtor or debitor is a legal entity (legal person) that owes a debt to another entity. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor. When the counterpart of th ...

to be transferred to the creditor, or sold for the benefit of the creditor. A wide variety of legal mechanisms are employed by debtors to prevent the attachment of their assets.

Prejudgment attachment

Prejudgment attachment or Prejudgment writ of attachment allows recovery of money damages by levying a

security interest In finance, a security interest is a legal right granted by a debtor to a creditor over the debtor's property (usually referred to as the ''collateral'') which enables the creditor to have recourse to the property if the debtor defaults in maki ...

on the property of the party paying money damages. A writ of attachment is filed to secure debt or claim of the creditor in the event that a judgment is rendered. Foreign attachment procedures have existed from time to time in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, where it was known as ''arrestment''; in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, where it was known as '' saisie arret''; in the

U.S The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

and elsewhere. (

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

) Prejudgment attachment in Chinese litigation proceeding can be obtained by the plaintiff before filing the case with court or arbitration commission in the case of emergency where failure to take immediate action will result in irreparable damage to relevant party. However, the party shall file its case with court or arbitration body within thirty days after the prejudgment attachment is granted by courts. Writ 1702

Historical London procedure

The person holding the property or owing the money had to be within the City at the time of being served with the process, but all persons were entitled to the benefit of the custom. The

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

having started the action, and made a satisfactory

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...

of his

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The d ...

, was entitled to issue attachment, which thereupon affected all the money or property of the

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one juris ...

in the hands of the third party, the garnishee. The garnishee had all the defences which would be available to him against the defendant, his alleged creditor. If there had been no

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

or collusion, the garnishee could plead payment under the attachment. The court to which this process belonged was the Lord Mayor's Court, the procedure of which was regulated by the Mayor's Court of London Procedure Act 1857. This custom, and all proceedings relating to it, were expressly exempted from the operation of the Debtor's Act 1869.

Attachment of earnings

Attachment of earnings, also known as garnishment, is a process whereby the creditor attaches money owed to the debtor by the debtor's employer.

References

Judicial remedies Civil procedure Legal history of England City of London {{law-term-stub

Prejudgment attachment

Historical London procedure

Attachment of earnings

See also

References