How Long Does It Take to Recover a Judgment?

This is the one question that Judgment Enforcers hear so often, it makes them sigh. Almost everyone (who has never tried to enforce a judgment) vastly underestimates the time and money it takes to enforce most judgments.

Even in the old days of lots of home equity, and most working at high-paying jobs - judgment enforcement was never cheap, quick, or easy. These days, it's harder than ever to enforce judgments. This article discusses timetables. One must remember that bankruptcy can stop any timetable on a judgment enforcement.

Here are timetables one can expect when recovering money on a judgment:

The perfect scenario is the debtor finally recognizes they wronged you - when they see that's what a judge has decided - and so they pay you in full. This rarely happens, certainly not often enough to merit holding your breath for. Timetable: zero to two months.

The quickest real-life judgment enforcement happens when the debtor has available assets far in excess of what they owe on your judgment. In such cases a judgment enforcer, or anyone who has studied for long enough,can find a way to free the debtor of enough assets to pay most or all of the judgment. Better yet, when one knows the law, one may take legal, polite, and firm actions to persuade a debtor to pay voluntarily. Timetable: one to 12 months.

The average debtor does not have a surplus of assets. The average judgment enforcement is like a chess game, where it takes several attempts to recover the judgment, one chunk at a time, over the long term. Eventually many debtors (having some assets) smell the coffee and eventually settle or pay off the judgment. Timetable: six months to five years.

The worst case debtor is either very poor or a clever fraud. Perhaps they hid their assets or use many names and social security numbers. For well-practiced frauds or very poor debtors, it's a long shot to recover money on a judgment. In the case of the poor debtor, one hopes they will come into money. In the case of a fraud, one hopes they will slip up, or through careful planning and detective work, the fraud's assets can be found and recovered. Timetable: one to 20 years.

What helps to speed up a judgment recovery is accurate information or hints to the current locations of the debtor's assets. What helps is knowing where the debtor can be served papers, where they work, where they bank, what their hobbies are, where income sources might be, and who their associates, friends, and partners are.

What to expect? Measure the time to enforce a judgment with a calendar, not a stopwatch. If you enforce it yourself, you will discover that judgment recovery is slowed down by reality, laws, and having to depend on courts, sheriffs, and process servers - who cannot work as fast as you want them to.

If you use a judgment enforcer, remember they only get paid after they recover your money. They want to enforce the judgment as much as you do. Hence, it makes no sense to pester a judgment enforcer.

As frustrating as it may be to have a Judgment Enforcer not make any progress on recovering your judgment, remember that the lack of progress is almost always because of the debtor. If you demand your judgment back and pick a new judgment enforcer, they may not be able to make any more progress. This reminds me of changing lines at the bank, only to find the line your were in moves faster than the line you switched to.

Judgment Collection

I am not a lawyer. This is my opinion about what I have learned and observed. If you need legal advice, contact a lawyer.

The easy part was getting the Judge to agree with you, to get your Judgment.

At every Courthouse - there should be a sign that says: "When you win a Judgment - don't expect to be paid". Of course such signs don't exist.

While court is a place to win a judgment, the court does not care if the judgment is paid. In most courts, they don't even allow social security numbers, birth date, or any other debtor information on any court paperwork. The reason given is privacy concerns. It seems that when you owe money, privacy is a primary concern.

The only information on most judgments is the persons name, and the address they were served at. You must learn obscure laws and fill out complex paperwork to enforce your Judgment.

Also, you must pay lawyers, courts, process servers, private investigators, or sheriffs at every step. You pay to try to collect - you don't get refunds if the collection effort fails. And as the economy slides, governments and courts are raising their fees and reducing their services.

The enemies of a successful Judgment Collection are small judgments and poor (or old or sick) debtors. When a Judgment is small (e.g. less than $12,000), it's too small to be worth paying a lawyer to help you collect a Judgment. When the Judgment is very small (e.g. less than $2,000) it's too small to interest most Judgment Enforcers.

When a debtor is poor, nothing can be done, except convince them to pay tiny amounts or hope things improve for them. Improvement can mean the economy improves, they inherit something, or win the lotto. The same problem comes up when you sue a company that is now broke.

When the debtor is old (or disabled), many assets such as retirement funds, disability, and social security is off limits - even if the debtor defrauded you. An old slogan comes to mind - "Youth and skill" is no match for "old age and treachery".

The economy is not helping people recover their Judgments. There was a time when all you had to do was record a lien on property, and you would be paid. That's no longer a reliable way to be paid.

Now a better case, your Judgment is against a rich young person with assets in their own name. Basically the pattern is: Identify an asset, fill out paperwork, and pay the court, sheriff, and sometimes others, to seize the asset. Then wait to see if the seizure works. Sometimes it does not work. One example is when there is another wage garnishment ahead of yours.

Except for bank account and wage levies, and advanced procedures like assignment orders - all other assets must be sold at auction. As an example, you can't take their TV set. You can pay the sheriff a big deposit, and have them take the TV and sell it at a public auction. If you try and have the sheriff sell something bigger - like a car or a house - you can waste thousands to sell something that does not belong to the debtor. (E.g. a property that is upside down or a leased car.)

Finally, you must always be calm and polite. If you make a mistake, you may end up owing the debtor money. The biggest mistake you can make is trying to collect on a Judgment discharged in bankruptcy.

Many rely on Judgment Collection people such as Judgment Enforcers to enforce their Judgment. Location is everything. Florida and Texas are debtor-friendly states. And Nevada, Missouri, and Arizona have special rules that make enforcing small Judgments troublesome.

In summary, the easy part is getting the Judgment. Most people end up finding a Judgment Enforcer. They are easy to find, that subject is my expertise.