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After most folks initially win a money judgment, they initially want to quickly recover each penny owed them. In real life, the majority of judgments are never collected. Judgments which are, most often do not end up being collected all the way. This article is my opinion and is not, a legal opinion. I am a judgment broker, and not a lawyer. When you ever want a strategy to use or legal advice, you should contact a lawyer. With situations where the judgment debtors have available assets; judgment owners sometimes get opportunities to write checks to Sheriffs and courts, and perhaps process servers too; to attempt to garnish their judgment debtor's bank account(s) or paychecks. If there's other kinds of assets, sometimes a judgment owner can also try to pay their Sheriff levy and sell at auction their debtor's non-exempted property(s). Most often, in real life, even in the best cases; not every dollar owed on judgments is collected. Usually, one should not try to squeeze the last dollar from the judgment debtor, and here are the top five reasons why: 1) Settlements are often the creditor's best or only way to be repaid, or to be repaid promptly. By definition, settling means a compromise on the amount owed to satisfy the judgment. Much depends on the available assets of your judgment debtor. When they are poor, settling is sometimes an alternative to the debtor filing for bankruptcy; and settling is often at pennies on the dollar. When your debtor has available assets and is doing very well, settling may net you more money than if you paid the expenses of a long judgment recovery effort or perhaps fighting with the debtor's lawyer at courthouse. With situations of clever rich judgment debtors who already professionally concealed "their" available assets; settlements for a few cents per dollar might be the judgment owner's only or best chance for payment. Naturally, those kind of sneaky judgment debtors sometimes don't pay you after the settling contract is signed. On big judgments, when your judgment debtor has lots of available assets; more often than once in a while your judgment debtor's attorney will try to insist that you settle with the debtor. The judgment debtor's attorney wants their client to think they have accomplished something. If you settle for (e.g., seventy-five to eighty percent) cents on the dollar (your mileage may vary), and it will make that attorney look good. 2) With default judgments, particularly if they are for much more than the damage done to the plaintiff, and/or particular when notice of the original court lawsuit wasn't personally and professionally served; often settle for much less than the full amount. On default judgments, many judgment enforcers shoot for seventy-five to eighty percent of what's owed, because this will save them the costs and risks of enforcement attempts; and pays them faster. Sometimes, you must settle for much less, partially to make the debtor feel like they received a break. 3) Usually, if you levy your judgment debtor's bank account, you won't get enough from the garnishment to fully satisfy your judgment. Sometimes, during your wage garnishment proceeding, the debtor will lose or quit their job. Sometimes, it is better to settle for what you've already received and then satisfy the judgment, so you will finally be done with this matter. 4) Even if you successfully recover every dime that is owed, most of the time it won't include the cost of performing that levy. Sometimes, it makes no sense to levy again for that final (e.g., one hundred and fifty dollars) owed, When the expense of doing so is one hundred and fifty dollars. 5) A voluntary settlement may increase the chances that you will be allowed to keep whatever you net. Involuntary levies may result in your judgment debtor filing for bankruptcy protection soon after; possibly forcing you to return whatever you levied, because of laws related to bankruptcy-related "look back" laws. Judgment recovery, is a collections effort, this means to collect or enforce your judgment. Judgment buyers are available and can help with your judgment collection efforts. Mark Shapiro of http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - Your fastest and easiest free method of finding the right expert to buy or recover any judgment.
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