Law & Justic

Posts Tagged ‘Judgment’

I am not a lawyer - I am a judgment broker. With that out of the way, a judgment is a legal document that needs proper “care and feeding”. If the debtor named goes bankrupt, or the time limits have expired (e.g., ten years in California, five years in Wyoming), or there is a successful court action to cancel it, the judgment can die. Also, if all laws are not followed during the enforcement of your judgment, you may end up owing the debtor money.

Anyone that enforces a judgment must take care of it. This article is for judgment owners considering who should enforce their judgment. Here are the five choices, with the pros and cons of each:

1) You can enforce your judgment yourself. The pro parts are that you are in full control of everything, and that this is usually the cheapest way to enforce a judgment. The con parts are that judgment enforcement requires a lot of time and money. Be polite, use common sense, and have patience. Each state has its own laws on what you can and cannot do to enforce a judgment.

2) Hire a lawyer on contingency - the pro parts are that it may not cost much to get your judgment enforced. The con parts are that very few judgments are accepted on contingency by lawyers. Also, the lawyer may give up if the judgment is not easy to enforce, wasting a lot of time. Also, many lawyers who take a case on a contingency expects the Judgment Creditor to pay all court costs up-front before taking your case. Court costs can become expensive.

3) Hire a lawyer by the hour – the pro parts are that when your judgment is large and you already know where the debtor’s assets are, you can save a lot of money. The con parts are that usually things are not so easy, and often you end up spending a lot of money with no recovery on the judgment.