You've got a judgment. The debtor still isn't paying. But you know where they work, and that changes everything.

An attachment of earnings order lets you take the money straight out of their pay packet through their employer. The court signs off, the employer deducts, the money lands in your account. It's one of the cleaner enforcement tools available after judgment, and it's the reason a lot of ignored debts suddenly get taken seriously.

Or maybe you're the employer. A sealed court order just arrived in the post, naming a staff member you've never had a problem with. You've got seven days before something's meant to happen, and you need to know exactly what to deduct, what to remit, and what happens if you get it wrong.

This is the guide for both sides of that letter. It covers what an attachment of earnings order actually is, how the process works across NSW, Queensland and Victoria, what the employer has to do, and how it compares to a garnishee or redirection order.

An attachment of earnings order is a court-ordered deduction from a debtor's wages, paid straight to the creditor. Once the court makes the order, it becomes a legal obligation. The employer must deduct the specified amount from each pay run and send it on until the judgment debt, interest and costs are cleared.

This is different from a voluntary wage deduction arrangement, where the debtor agrees to have money taken out. An attachment of earnings order doesn't need the debtor's consent. It needs a judgment and a court application.

The confusing part is that the same process has different names across Australia depending on the state

• Victoria calls it an attachment of earnings order (Magistrates' Court, Form 72F).

• New South Wales calls it a garnishee of wages or salary (Local Court).

• Queensland calls it a warrant of redirection of earnings (Magistrates or District Court).

Same idea in each case. The court tells the employer to redirect part of the wage. But the forms, thresholds and timing rules differ. If you're reading a Victorian guide and trying to apply it to a Brisbane debtor, you'll trip up.

Attachment of earnings only comes into play after judgment. If you haven't been to court yet, this isn't your next step. Have a look at how debt recovery works to see where judgment sits in the wider process.

Direct earnings attachment isn't complicated in theory. It's the paperwork that slows people down. Here's the full process from judgment to first deduction.

Step 1. Get judgment. An attachment of earnings order is only available after you've obtained a court judgment for the debt.

Step 2. File the application. You draft and file a summons with a supporting affidavit at the court that gave you the judgment. The affidavit sets out the debt, any payments received, interest, and costs. In Queensland, that's Form 74, sworn and filed at least two business days before the application itself.

Step 3. Serve the debtor and subpoena wage records. The debtor gets served with the summons and forms to complete. You should also draft, file and serve a subpoena to the employer to produce the debtor's wage and salary records at the hearing.

Step 4. The hearing. Different in each state. In some states, a solicitor attends, usually about two months after the summons is issued. In other states, no appearance is required and the court makes the order “on the papers”. The court works out the protected earnings amount (the floor the debtor's take-home can't drop below) and sets the deduction rate. As a rough rule, no more than about 20 per cent of after-tax pay can be redirected. The exact figure depends on the debtor's circumstances and the protected earnings rate for that state. Hearings typically run 15 to 45 minutes.

Step 5. Order served, employer deducts. The order goes to both the debtor and the employer. Under the Federal Circuit and Family Court Rules 2021, a third party debt notice binding earnings comes into force seven days after service, and that seven-day benchmark shows up across state jurisdictions too. First payments to the creditor usually land within a pay cycle or two.

Realistic timeline from application to first payment: two to three months if nothing goes sideways. Wrong form, missing affidavit detail or a subpoena served late can push it out further. If you'd rather not run the court process yourself, litigation lawyers can handle the application and the hearing appearance.

Each state does it slightly differently, and the differences matter.

New South Wales

In NSW, wage attachment is handled by the Local Court as a garnishee order against the debtor's wages or salary. You file the application in the court where the judgment was entered.

The NSW Local Court sets a strict floor on how far the debtor's take-home can drop. A wage or salary garnishee order must not reduce the judgment debtor's net weekly wage or salary below $626.10. That figure was last updated on the NSW Local Court page on 1 April 2026, so check the current amount before you file.

Practically, the creditor calculates the deduction so the debtor still clears that protected weekly amount. If the debtor's net pay is close to the threshold, a garnishee order may not recover much per pay cycle, which shapes whether it's worth pursuing.

Queensland

Queensland uses a warrant of redirection of earnings, filed in the Magistrates or District Court depending on the judgment amount. Two rules trip up most creditors here.

First, you generally have to apply within six years of the judgment. Miss that window and you're out of options unless you can get leave.

Second, Form 74, Statement in support, must be sworn and filed at least two business days before you file the application itself. That statement has to cover five categories: the order amount, payments made, costs, interest, and any other detail needed to calculate the balance owing.

Once granted, the warrant doesn't come into force until seven days after the employer is served. If you're pursuing a debtor up north, debt recovery in QLD covers where the warrant sits in the broader Queensland enforcement stack.

Victoria

Victoria runs attachment of earnings through the Magistrates' Court using Form 72F. The form itself sets out the deduction rate and the protected earnings rate, and it's served on both the debtor and the employer.

Form 72F states the first deduction is made on the first pay day following seven days after the day the order is served. So if the order is served on a Monday and the debtor gets paid weekly on Thursdays, the first deduction happens on the Thursday that falls at least seven days later.

Victoria's protected earnings rate is set out on the order and reflects the debtor's essential living costs. As with the other states, the deduction can't drop take-home pay below that protected floor.

If you're the employer, this is the section that matters. The order is directed at you, and non-compliance makes you personally liable for the amount you should have deducted.

First steps when the order arrives. Read the whole document. Confirm the named employee is actually on your payroll. Check the deduction amount, the protected earnings rate, and the commencement date. Diarise the first deduction date.

Calculate the deductible amount. The order will spell out either a fixed dollar amount per pay period or a formula. The rule is the same everywhere. After tax and after the deduction, the employee's take-home cannot drop below the protected earnings rate. If it would, you reduce the deduction so the floor is preserved, and note the shortfall.

The minimum wage floor. As a practical reference point, the Fair Work Ombudsman has set the National Minimum Wage at $1,004.90 per week or $26.44 per hour from 1 July 2026. Casuals entitled to the National Minimum Wage must receive at least $33.05 per hour including the 25 per cent casual loading. Protected earnings rates aren't identical to the minimum wage, but the minimum wage is the ground floor.

Administrative charge. Under the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021, an employer may deduct a $5 administrative charge per deduction. State attachment orders have their own small allowances too, and they're usually spelled out on the order.

Timing. In most jurisdictions, the first deduction is the first pay run that falls seven days or more after the order is served on you. Don't jump the gun and don't miss it.

If the employee leaves. You must notify the court in writing, usually within seven days. The order doesn't follow the debtor automatically to their next job. Once you notify, your obligation ends.

Reporting. Keep clean records of every deduction and remit to the account nominated on the order (a trust account or court account, not the creditor's personal account unless specified). If the court asks for a statement of deductions, you provide it.

Can an employer refuse an attachment of earnings order? Not lawfully. The order is a court order. Refusing to comply makes the employer liable to pay the amount from their own pocket. There's no discretion here. If you think there's an error in the order (wrong employee, wrong amount, employee not employed), you raise it with the court, not by ignoring the order. Legal and compliance obligations sit alongside these wage deduction rules, especially for larger payrolls.

Different names, overlapping concepts. Here's the map.

In practice, the available option depends on the state where the judgment was obtained and the type of assets available. A NSW judgment is enforced through NSW procedures. A Queensland judgment through Queensland procedures.

Where you do have different options is when the debtor has multiple assets. In NSW, a garnishee order can target a bank account instead of wages, and that often lands faster because there's no protected earnings calculation blocking the recovery. For the full picture on that route, see how a garnishee order in Australia works against wages and bank accounts.

Two hard limits worth flagging. An attachment of earnings order can't be made if the debtor receives Centrelink benefits. It also can't be made if the debtor is self-employed. In both cases, you're looking at different enforcement tools altogether.

DIY court applications can work. They're just slow, form-heavy, and expensive to get wrong. Two months to the hearing is standard. Add another month if the affidavit needs amending, or if the debtor plays for time.

Be aware that the default position is that if a company is making the application, a solicitor must represent the company unless leave is given to the company to proceed without a solicitor. It is usual for leave to be given – but there is no certainty about this.

The cost stack adds up. Filing fees, subpoena fees, solicitor's attendance at the hearing, plus your own time chasing paperwork. And you're still not guaranteed the order sticks, especially if the debtor's wages barely clear the protected earnings rate.

This is where an agency with in-house legal earns its keep. eCollect handles the pre-legal recovery. If it needs court, E C Legal (our associated legal firm) drafts the application, files the summons, subpoenas the wage records and appears at the hearing. You don't chase the court, we do.

We've been at this since 2002, with more than $120M recovered across 10,000+ clients (self-reported figures). The pitch isn't the numbers, though. It's that you skip the procedural learning curve. If you'd rather compare the agency route directly, debt collectors in Australia handling enforcement end-to-end is the place to start.

When would you still go DIY? Small one-off debts where the filing fee is a big chunk of the balance, or matters where you've got in-house legal already handling the litigation. Otherwise, the maths usually favours the agency route.

Upload the debt. We'll tell you within a business day whether attachment of earnings is the right play, or if there's a faster route. No fee if we don't collect. Start with a free debt appraisal to check if attachment of earnings is the right move for your matter.

• NSW Local Court, Garnishee Amounts

• Queensland Courts, Warrant of Redirection of Earnings

• Magistrates' Court of Victoria, Form 72F Attachment of Earnings Order

• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021

• Fair Work Ombudsman, National Minimum Wage from 1 July 2026