Garnishee orders
I refer to Steve Sant’s letter Garnishee Warning (July 27).
We feel the need to clarify that a garnishee order is a court order that requires all persons on whom it is served, including banks, to block all assets due to the alleged debtor (up to the amount specified in the order) and also to deposit any available funds in court within 19 days from the date when the garnishee order was served.
Banks are, therefore, obliged to act accordingly when served with a garnishee order against one of their clients. As such, the issue is not at all one of trust or otherwise in the banks, as suggested by Mr Sant. Neither does it involve data protection or client confidentiality issues because a court order overrides these provisions and must be complied with in terms of law.
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Carmel Grima
Aug 1st 2012, 09:37
the bank can also do a service to his clients by challenging the court's order, especially when we all know that the order comes simply by the adversary lawyer making a plea in the court that his client is owned money, when it has to be proven yet, that is this plea can be fraudlent, made only to vex a rightful citizen.
Ivan Gatt
Jul 31st 2012, 13:04
Mr. Bonello, whilst it is appreciated that the bank and any other concerned entity is left with little choice but to abide by the law, the Bank has a moral obligation to ensure that as per statutory requirements the money deposited in a client's account is not relative to his/her pension. A simple search of account balances and the source of the deposit would give enough data back to the bank to countermand a garnishee order.
Freezing an account and rendering a pensioner penniless is inhumane and incredibly insensitive, and which incidentally is what happened to our parents.
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