Sometimes, judgment debtors have very few assets to collect from. And often, locating the judgment debtor’s real property and recording a judgment lien against the debtor’s property is the best method for recovery. In 2019, we were contacted by a creditor in Ohio. The debtor in this case had done business with the Ohio business, but she failed to pay, and refused to make any arrangements to take care of the outstanding debt. She was sued in an Ohio court, which entered a money judgment for over $9,000. We conducted research and discovered that the debtor was receiving public assistance from the State of California, since she was a full-time caregiver for her disabled adult daughter, and had little to no means to satisfy the judgment.
We domesticated the judgment to the State of California, and followed the procedures to record a judgment lien against her house. The lien encumbered title to her property, preventing her from selling or refinancing the property without dealing with the judgment. Since there were no other assets to pursue, this case was a “park the lien and wait” scenario. With this case sitting on the shelf collecting 10% interest per year, by 2023 the judgment amount had grew to over $14,000. Although we didn’t use our usual “blitzkrieg” shock and awe attack strategy for this case, we still got paid in full… in early 2023, we received that magical phone call from a title company, asking for a payoff amount because the debtor’s property was currently in escrow and was about to sell in the next few days. BINGO! The debtor’s equity in her real property ended up satisfying the judgment at closing, and we received a beautiful UPS overnight envelope with a check for the full judgment amount plus all the interest and costs incurred!
Judgment liens may be the slowest way of getting paid on a judgment, but they are often times the best and most effective way of doing so, when all other hope is lost. If you have an unsatisfied judgment where your debtor owns real property, contact us so we can investigate the situation at no obligation to you.
