The losing party is expected to pay the stipulated sum of money or return the stipulated personal property once a judgment has been rendered in your favor. However, they fail to do so, and the court will not help you collect the judgment either.
First, get in touch with the loser to see if they’ll voluntarily settle the debt. The court can assist you in setting up an installment payment plan if they are prepared to pay but are unable to do so in full. You still have options to get the court’s decision enforced against the offending party if they refuse to abide by it. Executions on the judgment are the name given to these alternatives.
How Can I Make Use of an Execution?
You must first get a writ of execution form before using this procedure (the exact name of this form varies among jurisdictions). Fill it out, and submit it to the county sheriff’s office in the county where the party works. The party and their employer will then receive service of the writ from the sheriff. Filing this paperwork and getting any assistance you might need come with preparation and administration expenses.
How Does Pay Garnishment Work?
When the party’s employer withholds a portion of the party’s paycheck and gives the money to the sheriff’s office, which subsequently pays you, this is referred to as wage garnishment.
How Does Attaching Personal Property Work?
A judgment may have sources of funds and other personal property attached, and the sheriff will confiscate the property after the judgment has been executed. Financial sources like bank accounts or a company’s cash register are the simplest to handle because the sheriff just provides you with the seized money.
If the sheriff needs to seize any other tangible personal property, like a car, tools, equipment, or large appliances, they will do so, sell it at auction, and then give you the money.
If the party believes the connected property falls into one of the categories of property that cannot be taken, they may submit an exemption claim. The other parties may also submit a third-party claim of exemption if the property is held in a trust or by many parties.
How Can I Create a Lien for a Judgment?
When you foreclose on a judgment lien, you attach the party’s real estate to the judgment. Buildings and land make up real property owned by a party, and when foreclosure occurs, the property is sold to satisfy the judgment. A qualified attorney must handle applying for a judgment lien, and the foreclosure process is very difficult.
How Soon May I Start an Execution?
You may begin the execution process as soon as the judgment is entered if it is a default judgment. You don’t have to wait for the defendant to try to overturn the verdict, even though they still have a limited window of time to do so.
Until the appeal window has closed, none of the other judgments can be carried out. Execution may then start if the appeals period ends without a decision or if you prevail once more on appeal.
How Do I Receive My Court Order?
It can take two different steps to receive a compensatory damages award from the court and to actually collect the money. The court will ordinarily direct the defendant to pay the amounts if they are ordered to pay the plaintiff as part of a damages award.
The defendant, however, might not be able or unwilling to cover the costs of damages. In these circumstances, the plaintiff’s lawyer may take action to collect the money from the defendant, such as placing a lien on their property or deducting a portion of their wages.
In addition, until the damages award is fully paid, interest may be added to it. This can motivate the defendant to pay the compensatory damage award sums as soon as practicable.
Most will pay without question if you prevail in a lawsuit against a respectable company or person. The court will not assist you much or collect your judgment for you if your debtor refuses to pay.
Depending on your knowledge of your debtor, some strategies for collecting what you are owed include:
- Wait until the thirty-day appeal deadline has expired.
- As a bill collector may take a sizable portion of the judgment as fees, try to collect the judgment yourself. You can occasionally work together to collect the fee if your lawyer has an incentive to do so.
- Following the issuance of a court judgment, many debtors will make payments. If they refuse, you can calmly tell them that failure to pay would reflect negatively on their credit history and that you will pursue legal action to recover the amount if necessary.
- When the debtor requests an immediate payment of a sizable portion of the debt or offers to pay in installments, you might choose to settle for less.
- Try to offer some recommendations if the debtor is ready to pay but lacks the funds. The debtor may not have thought of all the available resources.
- Go after accessible assets first. To do this, one can garnish wages, encumber the property with liens, seize bank accounts, or stop payments made to a debtor’s business. Forcing the sale of a debtor’s home, car, business assets, or personal belongings is far more challenging.
- Keep tabs on the debtor since the more information you have on the person or company who owes you money, the more probable it is that you will receive it.
- Before other creditors learn of your plans, try to collect. You should collect on the day that the debtor’s salary is deposited if you are collecting from an account from which the debtor’s salary is deposited.
- A credit-reporting organization may get a report of the verdict. Sometimes, if the debtor is a contractor, having bad credit might lead to losing one’s license.
Most expenditures associated with collecting judgments are recoupable. You won’t get paid for these expenses if you cannot recover anything from the debtor.
You can provide the sheriff or local representative, also referred to as the levying officer, with details regarding the judgment debtor’s place of employment or bank account number. The money is taken from the employer or account by the levying officer and given to you.
How Do I Recover a Judgment from a Small Claims Court?
A judgment creditor has several options if the opposing party is unable or unwilling to pay the judgment.
The judgment creditor wants to make sure they have a written document from the court allowing them to collect on this debt if the judgment debtor refuses to willingly pay. This instrument may be referred to as a “writ of execution,” “writ of garnishment,” or “writ of attachment” by various courts. The consequence is the same regardless of the name; the judgment creditor is able to collect on their judgment.
What Happens Next After I Receive the Judgment?
It is the creditor’s responsibility to submit a Satisfaction of Judgment with the small claims court after the debtor has paid the money needed to satisfy the judgment. This demonstrates that the judgment has been honored.
Should I Hire a Lawyer?
While some procedures can be filed fairly easily with a court clerk, court aid officer, or the local sheriff’s office, if those do not work, you will need to consult with a collection attorney for collections to handle the more difficult collection processes.
