Attachment of earnings

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Attachment of earnings is a legal process in civil litigation by which a defendant's wages or other earnings are taken to pay for a debt. This collections process is used in the common law system, especially Britain and the United States, but in other legal regimes as well.^[1]

Ballentine's Law Dictionary notes that this process is not literal, whereby a "person's property is figuratively brought into the court."^[2]