Part 4 - A Judgment is a piece of paper
Now that you have a judgment, you have one more obstacle - how do you get paid?First make sure you have a final judgment. The defendant can appeal within 5 days. An appeal from justice court goes to the county court at law, and is an appeal “de novo.” In other words, you start over. I recommend that you hire a lawyer if this happens. In county court, the rules of evidence and procedure will be enforced, there is likely to be formal discovery, deadlines fornaming witnesses and producing documents, and it is more likely that the defendant will have a lawyer and perhaps request a jury trial.
If there is no appeal, there are several things you can do to collect your judgment, all starting 30 days after the judgment. First, request that the court clerk prepare an abstract of judgment and awrit of execution. The abstract is basically a document which summarizes the judgment, listing the court, case number, names of the plaintiff and defendant, amount and date of the judgment. The purpose of getting the abstract is so that you can record it and create a lien against any real estate (other than homestead) owned by the defendant. To do this, you send the abstract to be recorded in the county clerk’s office for each county in which the defendant may own real estate. So, if all else fails, when the property is sold, your judgment will have to be paid in order to give the buyer clear title to the land.
The writ of execution is a document which authorizes the constable to visit the defendant and demand payment of the judgment. First, contact the constable and check on the fees for serving the writ (usually about $50), and then mail the writ with the fees to the constable’s office. Include instructions to tell the constable about any property that could be seized to pay the judgment, and the balance due on the judgment, crediting any payments.
What can be seized? The best sources are money in the cash register, computers, desks and other business equipment owned by the debtor. If the debtor is an individual, you cannot take the debtor’s home, current wages, his car, tools of his trade, and certain other items of personal property up to a total limit of $30,000 for a single person and $60,000 for a family. Individual Retirement Accounts and 401k accounts are also exempt. However, boats, planes, stock not in a IRA, money in a bank account, and rental property may be levied on (seized) by the constable to satisfy your judgment. However, a separate proceeding known as a garnishment may benecessary to obtain money or property in the possession of a third party, such as a bank. You will want to contact the constable if you don’t hear from them and see what they are able to determine and the response they received to their demand. The writ is good for 90 days; allow at least 30 days before calling the constable’s office, because of the large number of writs and the limited number of officers assigned to this duty.
If your defendant is making payments, keep careful track of the amount and date of each payment, and calculate any interest due only on the unpaid balance.
Good luck in your pursuit of payment - after all, no matter how much you love your work, isn’t getting paid the best part? And if you get stuck in any part of the process, just call your favorite lawyer!
A Judgment is a piece of paper
