As you got the lawsuit and got your judgment, you most likely wanted to recover it as soon as possible. However, sometimes it's best to wait before attempting. For many creditors, the absence of debtor assets, means they do not have any control over how long they must wait before enforcing their judgment. Even when the judgment debtor has available assets, sometimes it is smart to delay before attempting to enforce your judgment. A few reasons to wait before collecting, include fixing names on the judgment, cleaning up questionable proof of service on a default judgment, and waiting for an appeal period to expire. This article is my opinion and is not, legal advice. I am a judgment referral expert, and not an attorney. If you ever need a strategy to use or legal advice, please contact a lawyer. Cleaning up the names on the judgment: When suing someone, one is often in a rush and rush to sue the defendant with the name they originally told you. As an example, you sued Joe Debtor, and soon after you received the judgment, you found out his name was actually Robert Joseph Debtorman. If he keeps his assets in his name of Robert Joseph Debtorman, you might want to try to get an Affidavit Of Identity (it may be called something else in certain states) court-approved, to get your judgment updated to list the actual name(s) of the debtor. Note this does not add any additional people to the judgment, it only more accurately names the debtor. It's best to wait until the debtor names on the judgment to be accurate, before trying to enforce a judgment. Cleaning up the proof of service with default judgments: This is when the judgment debtor was served notice of your lawsuit by publication, or they were sub-served (e.g., their spouse or relative got served), or served by somebody who is not a Sheriff, Marshall, or a registered process server. In that case, when the judgment debtor's assets are seized, the debtor might try to claim they were never served. Even when the judgment debtor lies, sometimes they may persuade a court they weren't served, and the plaintiff or you need to begin again and sue their judgment debtor again. A way to fix this is, after you get your judgment, to have some judgment-related official document (with the case number on it) personally served on the judgment debtor. Be sure to use a registered process server (or the the equivalent). In many states, when you wait six months after having court documents served on the debtor personally, they can't claim they didn't know about the judgment. Waiting for the appeal periods to pass: Each state has a statute of limitations for filing an appeal to contest judgments. Often, time limits for an appeal expires in a reasonably short period of time, in some states only a few weeks or so. In certain states, the appeal limit is one year. Very often, there's no reason to enforce a judgment during the appeal period, because when your judgment debtor appeals the judgment, you could lose and have to pay back more than you recovered. While waiting for the appeal time limit to pass, consider not giving any hints that you are trying to recover the judgment. Simply spend that time looking and planning for your judgment debtor's assets. As soon as the appeal period ends, you can confidently start trying to recover your judgment with gusto. http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - Judgment Enforcement. The easy, free, best and fastest way to recover your judgment money nationwide for 33% or less, worldwide for 50%. Mark Shapiro - Why assign your judgment?
Related Articles -
judgment appeal, judgment appeals, judgment statute of limitations, appeal periods, cleaning up judgments,
|