How to Enforce a Judgment Debt

Judgments must often be enforced by additional legal procedures. This can be disappointing news to litigants who may have spent large amounts of money and effort to obtain a judgment. Courts will not collect your judgment for you. However, there are legal procedures and techniques that can be employed to collect judgments.

Some judgment debtors file bankruptcy to avoid paying judgments. Although bankruptcy can eliminate many court judgments, there are exceptions to debts that can be discharged in bankruptcy. Among these are court judgments arising from intentional acts and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Instructions

How to Enforce a Judgment Debt

1

Obtain at least one certified copy of your court judgment. You will be charged a fee for this service.

2

Obtain an information packet from the court describing the specific legal procedures that the court offers to collect judgments, if available. Be sure to inquire about the fees for each procedure and whether more than one procedure can be employed at the same time.

3

Record an abstract of judgment with the county recorder's office where the judgment debtor has personal or real property located. The abstract of judgment will act as a lien upon all non-exempt personal and real property owned by the judgment debtor in that county.

4

Locate bank accounts owned by the judgment debtor. You may need to hire a private investigator to locate these accounts. A writ of execution form should be obtained from the court and a certified copy of the judgment and writ will be served (by a process server) on the judgment debtor's bank. The debtor will be allowed to file an objection to the levy within a specific time period.

5

Locate a place of employment for the judgment debtor and serve a writ of garnishment on the judgment debtor's employer. The debtor will be allowed time to file an objection to the writ for wage garnishment and he may be allowed certain exemptions from execution of a wage garnishment.

6

Locate any businesses that the judgment debtor owns. Many courts allow law enforcement officers to seize cash from a judgment debtor's cash register to satisfy a writ of execution.

7

Contact the court and file documents requesting a hearing known as a "debtor's examination." This is a hearing where the judgment debtor can be asked questions--under penalty of perjury--about the location of assets or sources of income.

8

Ask the court clerk whether other legal procedures are allowed.