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Often, a client calls wanting us to help them obtain assets for a judgment they have been awarded. In this article we will discuss some of the legal things you can do to get your judgment enforced so that you can get the money you are legally entitled to. We will offer some pointers and some things that cannot be legally done as well.

You already know that your judgment is legal and allows you to recuperate monies someone owes you. But you probably don’t know how to go about doing this. Many courts are not as helpful to persons with a judgment; mainly they don’t guide anyone as to what the next steps are. Most courts consider this to be giving you legal advice, which really it isn’t. What they should have told you prior to you’re leaving the court is there are some further things you can do. We are going to break this down to before you leave the court and after you leave the court things you can do to obtain your judgment. We would suggest hiring a professional private investigator to help you wade through this process. It will cost some money however; the expertise and time it takes to do these things are well worth it. We also assume you know everything about the person who owes you in both situations. If you don’t, you should hire a private investigator to do a skip trace or background on the person to determine all pertinent information you will need to go through either process. Trust me, the court will not help you with this.

Before you leave the court:

If you think you will leave the court and obtain banking information easily that is a falsehood. Most banking information is protected under either the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) or the GLB (Gramm- Leach Bliley Act). Under few circumstances it is legal to obtain the banking information of a person, and normally it is when child support is due. There is wiggle room in the acts, but the reality is who wants to challenge a federal law? I can safely say our company is not interested in working in the gray areas of the federal laws and most reputable private investigations agencies would be in the same opinion.

Before you leave the court, you can apply for a “Writ of Execution”. There are additional fees associated with this however, they are well below the fees you could pay to find banking information. A Writ of Execution basically commands the local law enforcement, typically the sheriff, to go out and take the assets from the person(s) you have a judgment against. This is the most cost effective, legal and comprehensive way to obtain money from your judgment. In this case, you have the law enforcement on your side working for you. Of course you may get money collected for the total amount due to you or they may seize property that they feel is valued at your judgment level. If they seize cash, you get the cash! Writs can typically be served on bank accounts, but check with the court to ensure the writ allows for this to be done. If they seize property it generally goes to auction and you will get your money once auction has completed.  In my humble opinion this is the surest way to get your money from someone, especially a business. You can not discount the power of the law in these matters and when law enforcement officers show up instead of collection agencies you can be better assured that you will have a greater chance of collecting the debt.

After you leave the courthouse:

Let’s assume you have already left the courthouse for the remaining portions of this section. I will bullet point out the legal things you can do to recover you money.

1. Go back to the court and go through the process of the Writ of Execution. Read above to see why I suggest this.
2. Find out what bank they use. This can be difficult, but when you find out the bank you can serve the judgment at that bank and they must immediately freeze all non-exempt funds. You can also do this at several banks if you are not sure which one they are using. There are several ways to do this which follow:
   1. Most people bank within a few miles of their home or place of business (convenience). You could try to shotgun the judgment at several banks. Branches in the laws eyes are the same as the main office. You only want to hit one branch per bank.
   2. If it is a business, have someone buy something from them with a check. When the check clears, obtain a copy from their bank and it will contain the banking information.
   3. Frequent the business and see if you can obtain the bank they use. It is legal and often you can see paperwork in plain view that will give you more information. If they personally know you, then use someone else. You could hire a private investigator to do this as well. You need to know that it may take several visits to get useful information.
   4. Dumpster dive! Yes it is ugly work, but the fact of the matter is most people are still tossing out very personal information in the normal trash even though identity theft is out of control. It is amazing what people put in the trash that can identify them or give banking information and other valuable information. It is even more amazing what information a business tosses in the trash. It is completely legal once the trash is in the “public domain”; the street is public domain or even the large dumpster that may be around an apartment complex or business. Once they put it in the dumpster, it is not theirs anymore! You could hire a private investigator to do some trash runs but be aware that it will cost you! It is dirty work and we don’t like to dumpster dive anymore than the next person.
3. Talk to people who know the person who owes you money. This could be friends, ex-friends, ex-spouses, vendors and much more. You need to start by asking for their help. Most people will want to help someone when they ask for it. You have to be careful not to give out too much information as much of it is covered by the federal acts that are listed above. You can say they owe you money and ask them if they know any pertinent information that could help you recover it.
4. Look it public records, like bankruptcies and divorces. Many times a great deal of personal information is in these records. Usually because it pertains to creditors they are listing and settlements for the divorce.  This is time consuming and you should consider hiring a private investigator that has the expertise at document retrieval. Your time is important.
5. Hire a private investigator to determine real property assets. Why would you do this? Well a professional private investigator has access to databases and records of real property assets. After identifying them you could place liens on them or list them in the Writ of Execution. If you place a lien on them you may be the last in line to get your money but placing a lien is an easy insurance policy for down the road and anyone with a judgment can do it. It doesn’t cost a lot to place a lien and you should really consider it. Listing specific items on a Writ of Execution can be helpful. Although you need to match value to your judgment when you do this, it will command the law enforcement to go after specific items when they make an attempt to serve and seize. If the item is present and matches the judgment value, it is seized. Once auctioned the remaining funds are yours.
6. Lastly, you could hire a collection agency. Collection agencies will typically charge you a fee based on the amount of the judgment. I say lastly because most collection agencies are the same. You contract with them to collect the judgment and most the time they will make near harassing phone calls and send letters in an attempt to collect the judgment. If a person determines that they are being harassed they do have recourse with the law. The federal acts are no different for private investigators, collection agencies or a private person so thinking the collection agency has more wiggle room is false.

Collecting a judgment is a time consuming process. Most clients think a judgment in hand is winning the war when in reality it has just started a new battle. An important thing to keep in mind is the federal acts that cover these situations. To think because you hired an agency and you will not have liability in these acts if someone makes a complaint just isn’t true. All persons and agencies involved will be subject to the acts no matter what! I would always suggest starting the Writ of Execution and hiring a private investigator to help you wade through the process of collecting a judgment.

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