Discovering The Truth About Judgments

Through vast experience, I know the the cash up-front value of most judgments is really small. Almost each day, I talk to more than ten judgment creditors, and exchange e-mails with around ten more.

Far too frequently, if I break the news to judgment owners their judgment is not worth a lot of cash up-front, they think I'm wrong.

It is as if they're listening to the truth about their judgment, for the first time. Most judgment owners do not comprehend the reality about their judgment situation.

There are websites that boast about buying judgments for "up to 55%", that will not pay even two pennies per dollar for typical judgments.

Some ancient estimations one can find on the www, assert that around eighty percent of judgments will never be.

I've worked to recover judgments for a decade, and have been working as a broker of judgment leads for 3 years. I have very direct experience with several thousand judgments, and I know this:

In recent history, around 95% of judgments which are not paid quickly, are never recovered, for more than 10% of what is owed.

When I assert that ninety-five percent of judgments never get recovered, I am not including judgments that have been dismissed or settled. Some reasons behind my 95% estimation is:

1) The economic situation is awful, and many people have far less money these days than in the last few decades.

Judgments are not cash, and only the judgment debtor can repay a judgment. When a judgment debtor is poor, not much can be done, and that judgment stays nearly worthless.

2) Laws and courts are downsizing, getting slower, and becoming more expensive. Judgment recovery is more expensive, slower, and occasionally extremely difficult in some states.

3) Debtors are much more likely to apply for bankruptcy protection these days. Usually, bankruptcy kills judgments.

4) Judgment enforcers and judgment buyers are leaving the business left and right.

5) Contingency lawyers, judgment enforcers, and buyers of judgments, are now super picky about which judgments they might work on.

If a judgment debtor has substantial amounts of money, it's easier to sell a judgment, or to find a contingency enforcer. These days, very few debtors have even a modest amount of available assets.

With 99% of judgments when the judgment debtors have few or no assets; it's as if either judgment owners are consistently refusing to believe the truth, or few people tell judgment owners the truth.

The truth is, it is now extremely difficult to sell judgments for more than one to nine percent of their listed value, depending on the judgment debtor.

A typical future-payment collection fee is 50% if you do not pay or risk anything for a judgment enforcement. When the debtor has ample assets, or when you pay all costs, one may pay a lower future-payment enforcement fee.

Most judgment buyer and auction sites are now gone. The sole judgment trade/sell/buy site left, has few successful sales, because most judgment owners price their mediocre judgments far more than 5%, so there are no actual buyers.

It is a shame, that many judgment creditors can't acknowledge the reality about the low cash up-front value of typical judgments. Some contact hundreds of judgment experts.

In my job, I've observed a pattern that repeats. For example, a judgment owner phoned me a year ago with a $100,000 judgment, they wanted to sell for $30,000 cash up front.

I explained that nobody will pay that high of a percentage, for a cash up front judgment sale. Also, that they would be much better off with a future-payment collection, and an enforcement expert will pay them about of 50% of the amount that is possibly recovered.

After the judgment creditor understood me, he said they will pay 15% to have the judgment enforced on a future-payment basis, and not even a penny more. I said to him I cannot help them, and good luck.

What resulted during the next year, was I received a lead for a judgment from about 50 judgment specialists, from that exact same judgment owner, who had aggressively and persistently sent and discussed their judgment throughout the nation.

About a year after that, the judgment owner called me again. He told me that he'd contacted about 300 judgment specialists during the previous year, attempting to locate an agreement for his requirements.

He still did not find even one enforcer or buyer, for his unrealistic terms. He then asked me did I knew any new judgment buyers now, that would pay his terms. I told him no, nobody will pay him $30K cash up front for his judgment.

The ironic part is, his judgment debtor seemed to own some assets. The 100K judgment owner, was not any nearer to recovering anything for the judgment; and he squandered lots of time for himself and others.

Some judgment owners get the idea that with the economy down, judgment enforcers and buyers will compete for their judgment. This is not true, because the expense and difficulty of enforcing judgments has dramatically increased. Judgments are not commodity items ruled by demand and supply pricing rules.

Many judgment owners believe one will find a much higher price by shopping a judgment. They are wrong. The truth is judgments are worth the amount a buyer will pay for it based on the debtor, not for what someone brags they will pay "up to".

Judgment sale prices, or the fee percentage for a future-pay collection attempt, does not depend on the creditor's wishes or needs. It usually does not depend on the buyer or enforcer, and almost always relies on the situation of the debtor.

Think about phoning 300 people and companies for a year, and not learning the problem. The obstacle is, the creditor was not facing a truth, that a judgment is never cash, and are most often not worth much up front.

http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - where Judgments and debts quickly get enforced by an expert - expertly matched for free, to the judgment debtor. Mark Shapiro, the judgment expert. I pay for leads, and have the best quality free leads for collection agencies, enforcers, and contingency collection lawyers.

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