---
title: O.C.G.A. § 18-4-14. Recovery of reasonable expenses; recovery of actual expenses; refunds.
collection: code
id: 18-4-14
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 18-4-14 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/18-4-14
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/18-4-14.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/18-4-14/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t18-t19-(v16)-2022-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=b0848ebd_0#page=199
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: DEBTOR AND CREDITOR / GARNISHMENT PROCEEDINGS / GENERAL PROVISIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 18-4-14. Recovery of reasonable expenses; recovery of actual expenses; refunds.

(a) The garnishee shall be entitled to the garnishee’s actual reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees, in preparing and filing a garnishee’s answer. The amount of expenses incurred shall be taxed in the bill of costs and shall be paid by the party upon whom the cost is cast, as costs are cast in other cases. The garnishee may deduct $50.00 or 10 percent of the amount paid into court, whichever is greater, not to exceed $100.00, as reasonable attorney’s fees or expenses.

(b) If the garnishee can show that the garnishee’s actual attorney’s fees or expenses exceed the amount provided for in subsection (a) of this Code section, the garnishee shall petition the court for a hearing at the time of filing the garnishee’s answer without deducting from the amount paid into court. Upon hearing from the parties, the court may enter an order for payment of actual attorney’s fees or expenses proven by the garnishee to have been incurred reasonably in preparing and filing the garnishee’s answer.

(c) In the event the garnishee makes the deduction permitted in subsection (a) of this Code section but the costs are later cast upon the garnishee, the garnishee shall forthwith refund to the defendant the funds deducted; if the costs are later cast against the plaintiff, the court shall enter judgment in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff for the amount of the deductions made by the garnishee.

(d) Nothing in this Code section shall limit the reimbursement of costs incurred by a financial institution as provided in Code Section 7-1-237, nor interfere with, exclude, or supplant any contractual arrangement for a garnishee to reimburse itself for costs or fees of legal processing due to a garnishment.

## History

Code 1981, § 18-4-14, enacted by Ga. L. 2016, p. 8, § 1/SB 255; Ga. L. 2020, p. 691, § 11/SB 443.

The 2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, added “, nor interfere with, exclude, or supplant any contractual arrangement for a garnishee to reimburse itself for costs or fees of legal processing due to a garnishment” at the end of subsection (d).

## Law Reviews

For article discussing an advisory opinion issued by the Standing Committee on the Unlicensed Practice of Law on the issue of execution and filing of an answer in the garnishment action by a nonattorney employee of the garnishee, see 16 (No. 1) Ga. St. B.J. 102 (2010).