Are there any banks that charge for processing Court Orders (i.e. to Freeze Customer Assets, Seize Customer Assets, or Release Customer Assets), and if so, what does your bank charge? (please list your state and related charge).
Thanks.

We do charge various fees for processing court orders, but I don't believe we're allowed to disclose those fees here, as it could be perceived as collusion/price fixing.

Your best bet is to make anonymous phone calls to FI's in your local area.

Many banks impose these fees and I agree that your best input will be local. Amounts range from $20 to $75 in the community financial insitutions I've dealt with.

While you have your peers on the phone asking them what they charge, also ask what percentage of the time they actually collect their fees. Unless you have a written legal opinion that says otherwise, assume your fee comes after the third party claim. Generally by the time you've earned your fee there's nothing left in the account to pay it.

Regulation DD's commentary says such fees are "not in connection with the account" and need not be disclosed. I encourage you to disclose them anyway.

For "turnkey" garnishments, such as IRS levies, we charge a flat fee.

For garnishments with more variables, such as writs of execution, we hand those off to our attorney and pass on the costs. State law (PA) allows us to collect our reasonable legal fees first, before releasing the remaining funds to the party initiating the garnishment.

"For "turnkey" garnishments, such as IRS levies, we charge a flat fee."


After satisfying the levy - correct??

correct.

Thanks for all your input. I am including some additional information that may benefit other members. We are a PA bank and the state statutes regarding Court Orders is Title 23 Sections 4304.1 (repealed) and 4305, and the PA Rules of Civil Procedure 1910.23 & 1910.26. There is nothing in PA State Law that prevents us from charging a fee for processing Court Orders and thanks to Ken; there is nothing in Regulation DD that prevents a bank from charging the customer a fee. Although our Truth In Savings Disclosure does not specifically list Court Orders, this is a legal item, which fits within our miscellaneous legal fees category. Thus, we can charge for Court Orders now. We also have elected to update our Truth In Savings Disclosure to list Court Orders, and we will charge our standard fee, (i.e. our legal item processing fee). We will, however, take the fee from the customer's account prior to sending the funds to the court, even in cases where there aren't enough funds to cover the entire court order. This will only be completed when the Court Order is to Seize Assets and send funds to the court. In addition, this issue was reviewed and signed-off by our attorney. I hope this additional information is useful to other members.