Collecting Your Own Judgment
Congratulations! You have won your judgment
and now are owed money that is due to you. However, now you have
the task of collecting the judgment. Your debtor probably won't want
to pay. And the court can't make him or her pay. You are not a debt
collector, so what can you do? How can you figure out how to collect
on your judgment? First, here are some choices.
1. You can contact a collection agency
and see if they will collect your civil judgment for you. There may
or may not be an up front cost. And the collection agency will probably
keep 25%-40% of what they collect. That may seem like a lot to you,
but the collection of civil judgments is not easy.
If you don't have the time to collect your
own judgment, then consider using a collection agency. But make sure
they do more than write nasty letters and make phone calls to the
debtor. You want a collection agency that is highly active. Call
5 or 6 different ones in your county and try to get a feel for which
one is most responsive to you.
2. You can also get help from a Judgment
Recovery Specialist. These are people specifically trained in collecting
judgments. They don't deal with credit card debt or the myriad of
other types of debt that a debt collection company handles. A good
judgment recovery professional is much more active than a regular
debt collection service. They know the ins and outs of small claims
courts and civil courts, and all the tricks of the trade.
The percentage that a judgment recovery specialist
receives is probably more than a collection agency. That's because
they do more, in my view. They also handle all additional court costs
and sheriff costs. It is not unusual for a judgment recovery person
to receive 50% of the judgment money.
3. If the above sound good, but you want
to keep more of your judgment money, then you can also collect the
judgment yourself. If your debtor is hiding or simply resistant,
then this may take some doing, but it certainly is doable in most
cases. The reason 80% of judgments are never collected is because
people either don't have the time or they don't know how. It may
be that you already know a lot about your debtor. Maybe you have
an old check, a place of business, a residence, and auto information.
Then you are on your way.
Even if you are not familiar with court procedures
and collection methods, there is a pretty comprehensive guide that
will cover just about all the situations you will run into called
the Citizen's
Guide to Collecting Your Own Judgment. It's cheap at $39.99
and effective in helping you collect your judgment on your own.
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