Things To Check Before Collecting Your Judgment
When you won the lawsuit and got a judgment, you probably want to enforce it as soon as possible
. However, sometimes it's better to wait before attempting. For many people, a lack of debtor assets, means they don't get to control how long they must delay before recovering the judgment. Even when the judgment debtor has available assets, occasionally it makes sense to wait before trying to recover a judgment.
A few reasons for waiting prior to enforcing, include cleaning up the names on a judgment, cleaning up questionable proof of service on a judgment won by default, and waiting for any appeal periods to expire. My articles are my opinions and are not, legal advice. I am a judgment referral expert, and not a lawyer. When you ever need legal advice or a strategy to use, you should contact a lawyer.
Fixing names on a judgment: When suing someone, one is usually in a rush and rush to sue them using the name they originally gave you. For example, you sued Joe Debtor, and soon after you received the judgment, you found out his name was really Robert Joseph Debtorman. If he keeps his money in the name of Robert Joseph Debtorman, you might want to attempt to get an Affidavit Of Identity (this might be named something else in some states) done, to have the judgment updated to reflect the accurate name(s) of your judgment debtor. Note it does not add any additional people to a judgment, it only more accurately identifies the judgment debtor. It's a good idea to wait until the names on the judgment to be correct, before attempting to recover a judgment.
Cleaning up the proof of service with default judgments: This comes up when a judgment debtor got served notice of the lawsuit by publication, or they got sub-served (e.g., by a spouse or relative got served), or served by someone who isn't a Marshall, Sheriff, or a registered process server. In such a case, when the debtor's assets get seized, they might attempt to claim they were never served. Even if the debtor is lying, sometimes they can convince the court they were not served, and you or the original judgment creditor must start over and sue the debtor again.
A way to fix this situation is, after you get your judgment, to get some judgment-related official document (with the case number on it) personally served on your debtor. Make sure to hire a registered process server (or the Sheriff or Marshall). In many states, when you wait 6 months after having judgment-related documents served on your judgment debtor personally, they can't claim they did not know they were judgment debtors.
Waiting for the appeal period to pass: Each state has their laws on filing an appeal to contest a judgment. Most often, time limits for an appeal expires in a fairly short period of time, in some states only a couple of weeks. In certain states, the appeal period is 12 months.
Often, there's no reason to recover a judgment during the appeal period, as if your debtor appeals the judgment, they could win and you would have to repay more than you recovered. While waiting for the appeal time limit to pass, consider not giving any indication that you are trying to enforce the judgment. Simply spend that time looking and planning for the judgment debtor's assets. As soon as the appeal period ends, you can confidently begin trying to enforce your judgment.
by: Mark Shapiro
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