Court Judgment Debt Collection

What You Need to Know about Court Judgement Debt Collection

Few people enjoy going to court and most try all available options before filing a lawsuit, but sometimes there’s just no other choice. If you’re one of those who have endured the stress of litigation and have won, you probably feel vindicated. In reality, the battle is just beginning. The judge may have found in your favor for a specific dollar amount, but court judgement debt collection is 100 per cent your responsibility.

Basic Considerations

A judgment is a legal order declaring you, the prevailing plaintiff, as the judgment creditor and the losing defendant as the judgment debtor. This gives you the right to collect the judgment amount from the debtor’s assets, but no court action is taken to persuade the debtor to do comply with the judgment and pay you.

Default Judgments

In many cases, the defendant cannot be located or simply ignores the proceedings and fails to appear. Although you do not need to know where the debtor is physically located to attach his or her assets, it certainly makes it easier if you know where to start looking.

Recognizing Exempt Assets

One important factor to realize before proceeding with your court judgement debt collection is that some people may be judgment proof; that is they may be insolvent with no income or may have property and income that the law recognizes as exempt from collection.

Procedural Issues

In the event you are successful in locating your debtor’s assets, collection procedures must be followed precisely. For instance, there’s a difference in a proceeding to garnish a person’s wages as contrasted with levying an individual’s bank account. Not only will your collection efforts possibly fail, you may subject yourself to personal liability if you act improperly.

Consider Consulting a Professional

Debtors will often pay as soon as the judgment is entered, but if you are one of the unfortunate judgment creditors who are having difficulty collecting, you may wish to consider a judgment solution company that can provide advice and potential options. Judgment assignment, which is essentially a contingent arrangement or outright judgment purchase, may be appropriate for your particular situation.