I am not a lawyer, I am the nation's only Judgment Broker. This article is my opinion, and not legal advice. If you ever need any legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact a lawyer.
What if you won a lawsuit and have been awarded a civil money judgment, how do you collect your judgment? This article is a brief outline, with a simple overview of some common procedures to collect your judgment.
The first thing to check is, whether your judgment is enforceable or not. If the judgment is either void or voidable, due to a flaw in the proof of service, or the lawsuit, or judgment; that should be resolved before you try to recover a judgment.
The next thing to check is, did your debtor ever file for bankruptcy protection after you got your judgment. If they did, most likely your judgment was essentially wiped out in the bankruptcy proceeding.
Next, almost every judgment expires after a certain amount of time, usually five to twenty years. If the judgment is old, it is a good idea to confirm whether or not it has expired. If the old judgment is still valid, it would be good policy to renew it.
Next, can the your debtor be found? Do they have any available assets? You must find this out, or pay someone to discover this, to be able to recover any money. To collect your judgment, you need to locate the judgment debtor's assets, and determine their status, to check for any possible debtor exemptions that might be claimed on them.
If your judgment debtor owns, or may someday own, any interest in real estate property, record your judgment in the county property records department, usually called the county recorder. Recording a judgment or an abstract of judgment, creates a property lien that might one day get you paid.
Record a lien in every county where your judgment debtor owns, or may someday own, any interest in real estate property. Record a lien in the county where they currently live, and the county where their parents or older relatives own property, in case they inherit that property one day. Some states have state-wide property liens.
Post-judgment discovery methods can be very helpful when attempting to enforce a judgment. Each court and jurisdiction has unique rules about what discovery methods are allowed. Sometimes, after being commanded to go to court for a debtor exam, the debtor may decide to start paying you.
With sufficient information about the judgment debtor and their assets, it is possible to levy or garnish their assets. These are the tools to help you actually get (at least partially) paid on your judgment. When examinations and levies do not mostly or fully pay off the judgment; wait a year, then rinse, lather, repeat, and try again until the judgment is satisfied.
After most or all of the judgment has been recovered, file a Satisfaction of Judgment form with the clerk of the court. Usually this form must be notarized first. After the court stamps the satisfaction, make a copy of it, and mail the original to the former debtor.
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