Judgment collection services in Jackson consist of two primary steps.
If you need the help of judgment collection services in Jackson, there are two main steps you need to know. Step one refers to finding the assets while step two deals with collecting them. Depending on whom the judgment debtor is, some steps can be harder to accomplish than others.
Finding the Assets
Finding things that can pay off the court judgment is often the hardest part, especially with dishonest individuals. After the case is over, the court will enter judgment, but the court doesn’t do much else to help the winner of the case get paid. However, one thing the court may do is demand the judgment debtor (who lost the case) appear in court and provide information concerning his or her assets.
For example, the court will want to know about the houses they own, what bank accounts they have, if they stand to inherit money from a relative, if they have a retirement account, and so on. The judgment debtor must provide this information to the court and if they don’t, the court may put them in jail.
Jail time is very rare because in most cases, the judgment debtor will begin cooperating just before they go to jail. Also, if the court orders them to jail, the court won’t use any of its resources to actively find the individual and arrest them. What’s more likely is that there is a bench warrant, which can lead to an arrest, but only if the individual just happens to come across the police, such as during a traffic stop.
If the judgment debtor is a public corporation, finding the assets is usually a much easier process. This is because a public company must disclose its assets to the public. But if there is a judgment against a public corporation, they usually have an insurance policy that will pay off the judgment in full, so no judgment collection steps become necessary.
Collecting the Assets
Once you find the assets, you can start collecting them. The three most popular tools for collecting assets are the levy, lien, and garnishment. A levy occurs when a sheriff’s officer or some other official takes the judgment creditor’s property, sells it, and then uses the proceeds to pay off the judgment debt.
A lien is a public notice that marks the judgment debtor’s property as potentially going to pay off the debtor’s debts. This puts prospective buyers on notice that if they buy the property, someone (such as the judgment creditor collecting the debt) could immediately step in and take it away from them. This is possible even without reimbursing them the money they spent to buy it.
Garnishment is where the judgment creditor takes money directly from a bank account or paycheck of the debtor. There are special rules on how much you can take and what money is off limits. Garnishment also requires the cooperation of a financial institution and employer, but that’s not too difficult to get if you follow the necessary legal steps to get authorization for garnishment.
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