Credit card companies will pursue a customer for payment on a delinquent account. Collection efforts start informally through internal collection personnel or third party agencies. If the customer still fails to pay, the credit card company has two choices: write off the debt and stop pursuing collection or hire a lawyer to sue the debtor.
Credit Card Judgments
The credit card company's lawyer will sue the customer in the appropriate jurisdiction -- usually the state where the customer lives. If successful in the lawsuit, the court issues a judgment in favor of the creditor. The recorded judgment attaches as a lien against the debtor's property.
Judgments Follow Debtors
A judgment debtor who moves to another state does not get to leave the judgment behind in her previous state of residence. Moving will burden the creditor with some additional procedural steps to enforce the judgment, but Section 1 of Article VI of the United States Constitution requires states to give full faith and credit (i.e., recognize and permit enforcement) to judgments from the courts of other states.
Uniform Enforcement of Judgments
The Constitution requires states to give full faith and credit to each other's judgments, but it does not specify how to implement that requirement; each state must adopt its own procedural requirements. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws created the Uniform Enforcement of Judgments Act to help states do so. Almost all states have adopted the this act.
Domesticating a Judgment
Attorneys refer to the process of moving a judgment to a new state to follow a debtor as domesticating or entering the judgment. Collection attorneys domesticate judgments in states where the debtor has assets that they can go after to satisfy the judgment. Depending on the procedure used in that state and whether the debtor objects, this could result in a hearing and delays in enforcement.
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