How much time does Kentucky civil procedure allow a judgment debtor to object to a garnishment or to claim an exemption? It is a question without an easy answer.
Typically, it seems, many Kentucky garnishments proceed quite summarily, and without ever landing upon any judge's desk. A judgment creditor files a form AOC-145 (Affidavit for Writ of Non-Wage Garnishment), the court clerk issues a form AOC-150.1 (Order of Non-wage Garnishment), the garnishee defendant is served, the judgment debtor is notified and nothing happens until the garnishee delivers the money to the creditor's attorney. End of story.
I have read that form AOC-150.1 (Order of Non-wage Garnishment) expressly states the judgment debtor has ten days within which to present objections or exemptions, but there is nothing in KRS 425.501(4) or the Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure, CR 69.02, to give that ten day limit an authoritative foundation. In an unpublished opinion, MGM Collection Agency, Inc. v. Barger , 1999-CA-001848-DG, the Kentucky Court of Appeals stated that there was no time limit for claiming an exemption in a garnishment action. I believe this to be a bit of judicial hyperbolic dicta. There has to be some limit, even if that limit is ambiguous or unspecified.
The decisive factors in MGM Collection Agency, Inc. v. Barger seem to have been that; (1) A non-party joint account owner promptly presented a meritorious objection to the bank garnishment (i.e. it wasn't the judgment debtor's money) before any sum was delivered by the bank to the judgment creditor, and; (2) Although we know when the bank itself was served with the garnishment order, there is nothing in the Appellate Court's opinion showing when the judgment debtor first received notice of the garnishment.
In short, the judgment creditor's whole appeal hinged upon the thinnest technicality.
The fog surrounding this issue is so dense, it is difficult to clearly and succinctly describe its contours. With the written law being so indefinite, it should be sufficient to assume the timeliness of a judgment debtor's objection to a garnishment or a claim of exemption is a matter within the trial court's discretion, based upon a multiplicity of relevant factors, including any claim of excusable neglect.
But, that's just me talking.