Archive for the ‘Judgment’ category

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Abstract of Judgment

February 4th, 2010

The abstract of judgment form is something that you need to fill out and file with the court if you want to place a lien against a debtor. Once it is filed, you also need to record it with the county that your debtor might have real property in.

It was recently asked, what does “A stay of enforcement has not been order by the court” mean. That box in the abstract of judgment form needs to be checked so that you can get your abstract of judgment from the court. It says that no court, most likely the bankruptcy has not order a stay of your case has not been order. A stay basically puts a stop to your case and doesn’t allow you to enforce your judgment.

So if you debtor has not done anything to get the court to stay enforcement of your case, you can go ahead and enforce your judgment.

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Posted in Information, Judgment

Prejudgment Interest

January 17th, 2010

Many people have asked me this question so I thought that I would post it here so that they can get the answer here. The question is:

“Can I get prejudgment interest on my collection case?”

The answer is yes and no. A creditor who prevails on a common count but not a contract cause of action may not recover prejudgment interest at the contract rate. So if you have a contractual agreement with the debtor, you can sue for a breach of contract and seek prejudgment interest.

If there is no contract and you are just suing for services rendered or for merchandise sold and delivered than you can’t get prejudgment interest.

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Posted in Collection, Information, Judgment

Real Property Lien

January 12th, 2010

Assuming you already have a Judgment against a person, you can place a lien on any real property that they might own or acquire after the lien is in place by obtaining and recording an abstract of judgment in the county that they either reside or that you think they might own property in.

The cost of an abstract judgment is only $25.00. The fee to record it in each county varies. In Los Angeles county the fee is only $25 for the first two pages. $27 if three pages.

Once the abstract of judgment is recorded, the judgment becomes a lien on real property located in the county of recordation regardless of whether the property is owned by the judgment debtor at the time of recordation or is acquired later.

The abstract of judgment is a judicial council form provided at the court’s website. The form is rather straight forward. It asked when the judgment was entered, the amount, the name and address of the debtor, the county in which you want to record the abstract, their social security number and driver license if you know it, your name and address (so that they can contact you in the event they want to pay off the lien), and the name and address of the debtor where you originally served them with the summons and complaint.

Just fill that information and file it with the clerk’s office. Once you get that back, you send it to the county recorder’s office to record it. And that is it.

If you suspect that the debtor might reside in more than one county or has property in multiple counties then get a abstract of judgment for each county and record them in each county to ensure you cover all your bases.

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Posted in Collection, Judgment

Mutual Funds & Securities

January 11th, 2010

Judgment enforcement is always a interesting topic. Many people manage to obtain Judgment against debtors or entities but that paper means nothing if you can’t enforce or collect on the Judgment.

Today we are going to approach the topic of how to enforce a judgment and collect on mutual funds and securities held by an individual. Mutual funds and other investment securities are managed or are part of large organizations that may not reside in California. If you have a debtor that owns mutual funds and securities, you have to ascertain where the CEO for these organization reside. Where their CEO resides is where you have to get a writ of execution and to levy on the securities.

For example, if your California judgment debtor owns mutual funds in an Asian small cap fund, and the CEO of the company that runs the small cap funds resides in New York then, your writ of execution and levy cannot attach to those securities. You will have to take your Judgment get it recognize in New York as a sister state Judgment. Then get a writ of execution in New York and levy there.

So when you deal with mutual funds and securities you must ascertain if they are located before you can consider going after them in California.

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Posted in Collection, Information, Judgment