Emolument attachment orders (EAOs), more widely known as garnishee orders, came under fire recently in the Western Cape High Court. Creditors have been getting garnishee orders issued by court clerks (and not magistrates) and they have often gone to courts hundreds of kilometres from where the debtors live. There is no requirement that the clerk of the court should review how the garnishee order would affect the economic circumstances of the debtor - in at least one instance, virtually the whole of an employee’s earnings were subject to deduction.
Once a clerk of the court has authorised a garnishee order, employers are obliged to deduct the amount stated on the order from the relevant employee’s wages. 
The Court was scathing about these EAOs and declared them unconstitutional and unlawful. That they were issued a long distance from the debtors’ home effectively denied these people the ability to appeal the order, a breach of their right of access to justice. The judge also held that judicial oversight must occur with garnishee orders i.e. a magistrate must authorise an EAO.

What should employers and employees do?