An Act concerning garnishment; payments from inmate trust accounts; amending K.S.A. 60-721 and repealing the existing section.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

New Section 1. (a) In any garnishment proceeding, no payment shall be made from any inmate trust account for any amount less than $5.

(b) As used in this section, ``inmate trust account'' means a trust ac- count established or maintained by any officer or employee of the de- partment of corrections or any correctional institution for an inmate pur- suant to K.S.A. 76-172 through 76-175a and amendments thereto and the ``inmate'' and ``correctional institution'' have the meanings respectively ascribed thereto by K.S.A. 75-5202 and amendments thereto.

Sec. 2. K.S.A. 60-721 is hereby amended to read as follows: 60-721. (a) Upon determination of the issues, either by admissions in the answer or reply, or by default, or by findings of the court on controverted issues, judgment shall be entered fixing the rights and liabilities of all the parties in the garnishment proceedings (1) by determining the liability of gar- nishee upon default, or (2) discharging the garnishee, or (3) making avail- able to the satisfaction of the claim of the plaintiff any indebtedness due from the garnishee to the defendant or any property in the hands of the garnishee belonging to the defendant, including ordering the payment of money by the garnishee into court, or the impoundment, preservation and sale of property as provided for the disposition of attached property, or (4) rendering judgment against the garnishee for the amount of his or her indebtedness to the defendant or for the value of any property of the defendant held by the garnishee, and (5) if the answer of a garnishee is controverted without good cause, the court may award the garnishee judgment against the party controverting such answer damages for his or her expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, necessarily incurred in substantiating the same.

(b) When judgment is entered in garnishment proceedings for the purpose of enforcing an order of any court for the support of any person and the court finds that a continuing order of garnishment is necessary to insure payment of a court order of support, the court may issue a continuing order of garnishment to allow any indebtedness that will be- come due from the garnishee to the defendant because of an employer- employee relationship to be made available to the plaintiff on a periodic and continuing basis for so long as the court issuing the order may de- termine or until otherwise ordered by such court in a further proceeding. No order may be made pursuant to this subsection (b) unless the court finds that the defendant is in arrearage of a court order for support in an amount equal to or greater than one year of support as ordered and the defendant receives compensation from his or her employer on a regular basis in substantially equal periodic payments. On motion of a defendant who is subject to a garnishment order pursuant to this subsection (b), the court for good cause shown may modify or revoke any such order.

(c) All orders and judgments in any garnishment proceeding shall be subject to the provisions of section 1 of this act and amendments thereto.

Sec. 3. K.S.A. 60-721 is hereby repealed.

Sec. 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its publication in the Kansas register.

Approved March 31, 1996.

Published in the Kansas Register: April 4, 1996.