A plaintiff has obtained a pre-judgment writ — attachment, replevin, garnishment, lien — that freezes your property, accounts, or operations. Defendant bonds are the counter-security instruments that substitute surety for the writ, releasing the property and restoring your operational position. We write every category of defendant counter-security bond, including the high-volume mechanic's lien release bonds that are the bread and butter of our defendant practice.
Pre-judgment remedies — attachment, replevin, garnishment, mechanic's liens — give plaintiffs a powerful weapon: the ability to freeze specific defendant property as security for an unproven claim. The defendant is deprived of the property's use during the litigation, which often runs a year or more. For operating businesses, the deprivation can be catastrophic: frozen accounts that cannot meet payroll, attached real estate that cannot be refinanced, replevined inventory that cannot be sold, liens against property that cannot be cleared at closing.
The defendant counter-security bond is the universal remedy. By substituting surety for the specific frozen property, the defendant releases the property from the writ. The plaintiff's pre-judgment security shifts from the property to the bond; the underlying case continues to judgment on the same merits as before; the defendant regains operational use of the property.
The instruments differ by remedy type. Counter-replevin responds to the plaintiff's replevin writ — the defendant keeps the personal property pending suit. Dissolution of attachment responds to the writ of attachment — the defendant's real estate, accounts, or business assets are released from the attachment lien. Release of garnishment responds to the writ of garnishment — wages, accounts, and account receivables flow normally. Mechanic's lien release responds to a recorded mechanic's lien — the property is cleared from the recorder's books. Interpleader is the stakeholder's specialized instrument — used by parties caught between competing claimants who deposit funds with the court (in bond form) and step out of the dispute.
Five distinct defendant bond instruments cover the typical counter-security needs in U.S. civil practice. Mechanic's lien release is the highest-volume defendant practice; the others arise in specific litigation postures.
Federal defendant counter-security bonds operate under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 64, which adopts the seizure remedies of the forum state and the corresponding state-law dissolution and release mechanisms. The substantive rules — bond multipliers, qualifying showings, procedural sequence — come from the state's law; FRCP 64 provides the procedural overlay.
Interpleader is the exception: federal statutory interpleader under 28 U.S.C. §1335 has its own jurisdictional basis and express bond authority. Rule 22 federal interpleader uses the general federal jurisdictional framework. Both authorize bonds in lieu of actual deposit.
Mechanic's lien release is the most jurisdictionally distinctive defendant bond. State mechanic's lien practice is recording-based (filed with the county recorder, not a court), while FAA aircraft liens are federal practice filed with the FAA Aircraft Registry. The two paths are independent and we write both.
Defendant bond underwriting balances the strength of the defendant's underlying defenses against the size of the seizure. For commercial defendants with substantial assets, well-developed defenses, and reasonable likelihood of prevailing or settling favorably, most defendant bonds are written same-day on standard application terms without collateral.
For non-standard files — weak underlying defenses, very large seizures, credit-challenged defendants, contested mechanic's liens with disputed amounts — collateral is available in three forms: cash, irrevocable letter of credit, or U.S. Treasury securities. Real estate is not accepted (especially appropriate for lien release work, where real estate is the underlying subject of the dispute).
The most important practical point: defendant counter-security work is time-sensitive. State statutes typically provide narrow windows for posting counter-security after the plaintiff's writ — three to fourteen days in most cases. The defendant who waits past the window loses the right to substitute the bond. We treat defendant work as emergency routing by default and have the underwriting capacity to issue same-day on qualified files.
Send the plaintiff's writ or recorded lien plus a brief description of the property. Our underwriters open the file and respond immediately, 7/52/365. Most defendant bonds issue same business day.