At my job, all too many times I hear complaints similar to "I assigned my judgment to Ed Enforcer, and now their web site is down and his telephone is disconnected". I have written articles before on the way to deal with this kind of problem, however the solutions are not easy. The customary remedies are to schedule a hearing and file a motion at the court, for a resumption of creditor's rights, or to void the assignment of judgment. This article is my opinion and is not, legal advice. I'm a judgment referral expert, and not a lawyer. When you ever need legal advice or a strategy to use, you should contact a lawyer.
Most judgment owners don't have the funds, time, or patience required, to collect some judgment money. If your judgment debtor is rich and the judgment is big, is easy to find a contingency collection attorney or someone that buys judgments; or some other kind of contingency recovery expert, including a judgment enforcer or a collection agency. Unfortunately, very few judgment situations are like that. Although the web has many misleading promises of methods of getting fast cash for judgments, there are just a couple of real options for owners of average judgments, which are all not quick methods to collect money from judgments.
1) Enforce your judgment yourself, however this is a hassle, costs money, and is time consuming.
2) Sell the judgment for pennies on the dollar, or waste your time trying to get more than that on a cash up-front basis.
3) Find a collection agency. In the past, most collection agencies used the telephone and the post office to do most of their work, and did not even try to do what was needed to recover judgments. Some attempted to move towards enforcing judgments, and quit when the debtors did not respond to just letters and phone calls.
There are some collection agencies that have successfully transitioned into recovering judgments, and the best are owned by lawyers and/or use lawyers to collect judgments. The good part is you keep ownership of the judgment. The bad part is with a few exceptions, most collection agencies are not good at recovering judgments. Most do not accept any judgments, or not from individual judgment owners, unless referred by a judgment referral expert.
4) Find a collection attorney. You keep ownership of your judgment. Usually, you will have to pay them by the hour. Most people having average judgments will not find a contingency lawyer or a good collection agency to try to recover their judgment, unless they are referred by a judgment referral expert.
5) Assign your judgment to a judgment recovery specialist, which means you give up ownership of your judgment. Assigning your judgment means that you forfeit ownership of your judgment permanently. It's a one-way sale that cannot be reversed except by finding and getting the cooperation of the person you assigned it to, or working and paying for a court order voiding that assignment to them.
Keep in mind, judgment enforcement is most often a really slow process, and the odds are stacked against a complete recovery. When your debtor is broke, it really does not matter much which collection choice you make, or whether or not you get the judgment returned.
Although most judgment recovery specialists do the right thing, and return judgments they haven't any plan for enforcing, not all do. In our economic situation, the problem of flaking judgment enforcers is becoming very serious. I know about many instances where judgment enforcers will not release a judgment, even if they don't do anything to try to recover it, not even recording a lien. This is not good, because anyone without any plan to recover a judgment shouldn't keep it long term. Being a member of a judgment organizations seems not to guarantee much.
There is one very valid reason for an enforcer not to return judgments, and that's if they are making some progress, or have any plan to make progress in the future. Except for that single good reason, these are the top four reasons enforcers do not return judgments assigned to them:
1) When some judgment recovery specialists exit the business, they do not care about their obligations. They don't return judgments, and disconnect their phone and move.
2) When judgment enforcers run out of cash they cannot make progress on any judgment. Certain enforcers cannot even afford to pay the $10 notary fee required to assign your judgment back to you. In that case, offer to pay the enforcer a small amount of money to return the judgment.
3) When a judgment enforcers finds a day job, gets sick, has a death in their family, dies, goes to jail, files for bankruptcy protection, etc. Sometimes the judgments assigned to them is the last thing they think about.
4) If enforcers take all judgments which come in, when they haven't any plans or possibility of recovering them, and for some reason, they will not return judgments when asked.
Be careful when assigning your judgment to a judgment recovery specialist not referred by someone that knows their long-term history and performance.
Most judgment owners don't have the funds, time, or patience required, to collect some judgment money. If your judgment debtor is rich and the judgment is big, is easy to find a contingency collection attorney or someone that buys judgments; or some other kind of contingency recovery expert, including a judgment enforcer or a collection agency. Unfortunately, very few judgment situations are like that. Although the web has many misleading promises of methods of getting fast cash for judgments, there are just a couple of real options for owners of average judgments, which are all not quick methods to collect money from judgments.
1) Enforce your judgment yourself, however this is a hassle, costs money, and is time consuming.
2) Sell the judgment for pennies on the dollar, or waste your time trying to get more than that on a cash up-front basis.
3) Find a collection agency. In the past, most collection agencies used the telephone and the post office to do most of their work, and did not even try to do what was needed to recover judgments. Some attempted to move towards enforcing judgments, and quit when the debtors did not respond to just letters and phone calls.
There are some collection agencies that have successfully transitioned into recovering judgments, and the best are owned by lawyers and/or use lawyers to collect judgments. The good part is you keep ownership of the judgment. The bad part is with a few exceptions, most collection agencies are not good at recovering judgments. Most do not accept any judgments, or not from individual judgment owners, unless referred by a judgment referral expert.
4) Find a collection attorney. You keep ownership of your judgment. Usually, you will have to pay them by the hour. Most people having average judgments will not find a contingency lawyer or a good collection agency to try to recover their judgment, unless they are referred by a judgment referral expert.
5) Assign your judgment to a judgment recovery specialist, which means you give up ownership of your judgment. Assigning your judgment means that you forfeit ownership of your judgment permanently. It's a one-way sale that cannot be reversed except by finding and getting the cooperation of the person you assigned it to, or working and paying for a court order voiding that assignment to them.
Keep in mind, judgment enforcement is most often a really slow process, and the odds are stacked against a complete recovery. When your debtor is broke, it really does not matter much which collection choice you make, or whether or not you get the judgment returned.
Although most judgment recovery specialists do the right thing, and return judgments they haven't any plan for enforcing, not all do. In our economic situation, the problem of flaking judgment enforcers is becoming very serious. I know about many instances where judgment enforcers will not release a judgment, even if they don't do anything to try to recover it, not even recording a lien. This is not good, because anyone without any plan to recover a judgment shouldn't keep it long term. Being a member of a judgment organizations seems not to guarantee much.
There is one very valid reason for an enforcer not to return judgments, and that's if they are making some progress, or have any plan to make progress in the future. Except for that single good reason, these are the top four reasons enforcers do not return judgments assigned to them:
1) When some judgment recovery specialists exit the business, they do not care about their obligations. They don't return judgments, and disconnect their phone and move.
2) When judgment enforcers run out of cash they cannot make progress on any judgment. Certain enforcers cannot even afford to pay the $10 notary fee required to assign your judgment back to you. In that case, offer to pay the enforcer a small amount of money to return the judgment.
3) When a judgment enforcers finds a day job, gets sick, has a death in their family, dies, goes to jail, files for bankruptcy protection, etc. Sometimes the judgments assigned to them is the last thing they think about.
4) If enforcers take all judgments which come in, when they haven't any plans or possibility of recovering them, and for some reason, they will not return judgments when asked.
Be careful when assigning your judgment to a judgment recovery specialist not referred by someone that knows their long-term history and performance.
Source...