We Flew a Small Plane to West Virginia to Collect an $85,000 Judgment. Worth It.

We bought an $85,000 judgment against a debtor who had no intention of paying it. She ignored the judgment and acted like it didn’t exist.

And she wasn’t just any debtor. She was a suspended attorney.

Attorneys are notoriously difficult to collect from. They know the court system inside and out, they know every way to delay, and they know exactly which assets a creditor can and can’t reach. A suspended attorney has even less to lose by dragging things out.

But she owned a house in West Virginia.

A judgment from one state can’t be enforced against property in another state until it’s domesticated. That means registering the judgment with a court in the state where the property sits, so it’s treated like a local judgment. Until that happens, the debtor’s house might as well be on the moon.

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Why We Got on a Plane

Most creditors stop right here. They’re looking at a court system they’ve never dealt with, in a state they’ve never been to, with filing rules they don’t know. Paperwork gets mailed, mailed back, and corrected, and weeks turn into months.

We had a better option. One of our closest friends is a pilot who owns a small plane, and he never turns down a good adventure, or a good excuse to fly his plane.

The drive from Philadelphia to Charleston, West Virginia is easily 7+ hours each way. In a small plane, it’s about 2.5 hours. So we skipped the mail, skipped the highway, and flew.

We landed in Charleston and taxied over to the FBO, the private terminal that serves small planes, instead of the commercial terminal that airlines like American, Delta, and United use. Like a lot of FBOs, it keeps a “crew car” that pilots can borrow for quick trips into town. We grabbed the keys, drove to the courthouse, and filed the paperwork in person.

On the ground, we did two things:

• Domesticated the judgment by filing it with the West Virginia court, which turned it into a West Virginia judgment.
• Recorded a judgment lien against the debtor’s real estate in the county where her house sits.

Then we drove back to the airport and flew home to Philadelphia. The total cost was about $400 in gas for a quick flight there and back. For an $85,000 judgment? WORTH IT.

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Why the Lien Matters

Once a judgment lien is recorded, the debtor can’t sell or refinance the property with clear title. Any title company handling a sale will find the lien and require it to be paid off before closing.

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The Payoff

The debtor could ignore the judgment. Even with all her legal know-how, she couldn’t ignore the lien.

Less than a year after we recorded the lien, she sold the house, and the judgment was paid in full.

She spent a long time pretending the judgment didn’t exist. In the end, it got paid at the closing table.

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The Takeaway

An out-of-state debtor isn’t out of reach, even one who knows the system. If they own real estate, a domesticated judgment and a recorded lien can sit on that property until it’s sold or refinanced, and then the judgment gets paid first.

But doing that means learning another state’s courts and filing rules, paying filing and recording fees, and sometimes, getting on a plane. Then you wait, sometimes for years, while the lien does its job. Most creditors don’t have the time or appetite for that.

We do.

Final Verdict Solutions buys civil money judgments over $25,000 in all 50 states. If your debtor lives in another state, or owns property somewhere you’ve never been, contact us for a no obligation cash offer. If you accept, you get paid and the travel becomes ours.