In civil litigation, garnishment is the process whereby a debt, or part of a debt, owed by a third party to the defendant, can be paid directly to the claimant, in satisfaction of a judgment debt.

So if person A claims money from person B and the court upholds A’s claim and orders B to pay the money to A, the court can make a garnishee order in respect of a debt already owed to B by another person, C. The result is that the money C owes to B (or as much of it as B owes to A) can be paid directly to A.

Such orders are now known as Third Party Debt orders or TPD orders.