What is Judgment Enforcement? An Examination of the Basics

Courts of law hear disputes, in which two or more parties are involved. The two sides of court cases are plaintiffs and defendants, which can either be individuals or groups of people. Criminal cases, including assault and theft, don’t always end in monetary awards — usually just jail sentences. Civil cases, on the other hand, either result in parties having to change behaviors or properties of things or monetary judgments. A wide margin of monetary judgments aren’t paid by those ordered to, similar to unpaid debts. As such, collection agencies deal with judgment enforcement or collecting monetary amounts from individuals, groups, and organizations that lost court cases.

What happens to people who owe money from judgments?

Judgment creditors are those who owe money to judgment debtors that disputed matters in a valid court of law. Courts don’t collect the money themselves and don’t put people in jail for not paying debts. Nothing other than being contacted by others results from owing money. However, if agreements are made in court and creditors sign them, not paying amounts on time or in full may result in jail sentences.

What do judgment creditors need to do?

If judgment creditors straight-up take things from those who owe them money or other assets, they’d get in trouble for theft. Creditors must file a Writ of Execution document with appropriate courts. However, this requires creditors to know a lot about debtors, as they don’t often provide enough financial and personal information to creditors in the first place.

How do they find information?

Creditors must locate pertinent information and details prior to getting further in collection attempts. They can purchase background checks online, comb through court cases, or personally contact those to debtors and attempt to locate information. Their best bet is to conduct background checks.

What’s next?

Judgment enforcement creditors must have courts undergo examination hearings with both creditors and debtors. Creditors must “serve” notice of the court case to debtors at least ten days in advance of cases, as well as filling out legal forms to register court appointments.