COLLECTION OF THE
JUDGMENT
It is your responsibility to collect a judgment.
Because you have a judgment, you have ways of collecting that you would not have
otherwise. Two of these are:
Installment payments :
The court encourages the parties to agree among
themselves how a judgment is to be paid. If a lump sum payment is not possible,
try to reach some agreement on installment payments.
Garnishment : If the
defendant will not voluntarily pay the judgment and you know where money is owed
to him/her, such as wages, bank accounts, rentals, etc. you may want to file a
writ of garnishment to attach this money. A writ of garnishment may not be
issued to enforce the judgment until the expiration of 21 days after it was
entered. The garnishment is filed against the person or business having
possession of the monies. They are referred to as the garnishee defendant.
Income such as welfare, unemployment, social security, etc., cannot be
garnished.
Before filing a garnishment for personal wages, you must
know: (1) where the defendant works; (2) how often he/she is paid; and (3)
what day of the week he/she receives his/her check. This will help you decide
when the garnishment should be filed and served on the garnishee defendant.
The garnishee defendant has seven days after service of the writ to let
you, the Court, and the principal defendant know if there are available monies.
In the case of wages, you are not entitled to the defendant's entire paycheck;
only a portion of it as determined by a federal formula. You may have
to file several wage garnishments to satisfy a judgment if no other
payments are made. As you are required to sign a sworn affidavit to the truth
and correctness of the amount still owing, you must keep accurate records.
WHEN PAYMENT OF JUDGMENT IS COMPLETE,
EITHER IN FULL OR TO YOUR SATISFACTION, YOU MUST FILE A SATISFACTION OF JUDGMENT
WITH THE COURT.
