Frequently Asked Questions
Here’s a general overview of the entire process for you:
Whenever there is a dispute involving money, and the dispute cannot be resolved through any traditional means of collection, our country’s legal system makes it possible for individuals or businesses to bring their dispute before the court to decide who is legally entitled – or not – to compensation. Compensation can be in the form of money, an exchange of property, or an order from the court to do a specific thing – such as an eviction from a rental unit.
People find themselves in court for a variety of different reasons. Unpaid bills, personal loans, tenant evictions, business deals gone bad, uninsured auto accidents – you name it. If it involves money the matter can be heard in a small claims court, or a higher civil court, and the responsibility for ‘what’ is owed to ‘whom’ will be determined by a judge or commissioner.
A ‘plaintiff’ is the person who is initially filing a lawsuit (a complaint) against someone, requesting a hearing on the matter in court. The ‘defendant’ is the person who is defending against the complaint – or the person who presumably owes money to the plaintiff.
When the court decides in favor of either the plaintiff or defendant it will award a judgment. A judgment declares the court’s decision in the dispute. If the plaintiff wins, the court will usually order the losing party to pay a certain amount of money to the winner, often including filing fees and/or attorney’s fees as well. If the defendant wins they usually don’t have to pay anything and the matter is final.
The winner of the case, if a dollar amount was awarded, is now referred to as the judgment creditor. The person who has lost the case, and now owes money, is referred to as the judgment debtor (“deh-tor:” the ‘b’ is silent). On rare occasions, the judgment debtor will pay the amount ordered and that’s the end of things. The likelier scenario (about 80% of the time) is that the judgment debtor ignores the judgment and order to pay completely. This leaves judgment creditors with no other choice but to attempt to enforce their judgment on their own, or hire an attorney to do it for them.
Only a small percentage of all attorneys deal with the enforcement of judgments. Further, they usually won’t touch anything under a large dollar amount and require retainer fees up front. Court clerks, although they are as helpful as they can be, are not permitted to give out legal advice to assist the judgment creditor with the enforcement of the judgment, so most judgment holders hit a dead end soon after their judgment has been awarded.
It’s quite a dilemma for the judgment holder – but fortunately for us, it provides a unique niche of customers. You, as a judgment recovery specialist, will send the judgment creditor a letter offering your help. You’ll inform them that as a judgment holder they have the right to assign their judgment to someone else for enforcement. The judgment creditor will probably want to speak to you directly concerning their case and then let you explain how it works in more detail.
After negotiating an agreement for the transfer of the judgment with the judgment creditor, the judgment will be assigned to you and you’ll become the new judgment creditor. At this point, the judgment is yours and you can now proceed with locating the judgment debtor and their assets.
Once assets have been located (ie: property, bank account, employment, etc.) you’ll seize them through the court. The court will send any resulting payment to you, since you’re now the judgment creditor. You’ll deduct any fees that you’ve incurred during the enforcement process and send the original judgment holder a payment, which is based on a percentage of the money you’ve received through the enforcement process.
You’ll also find that businesses in your area who own rental properties, contractors, doctors, dentists, jewelers, used car lots, contractor suppliers and other multiple judgment holders will all clamor for your help. You’ll be providing an extremely necessary function in your community. And bad debt will never go away.
Over time you’ll not only be collecting entire judgments in one shot, you’ll also be receiving residual income from continuing wage garnishments and voluntary monthly payments. Once you get these payments set up they just keep rolling in until the judgment is paid. When you have 20 of these continuing payments coming in steadily they can add up quickly!
This, of course, is just a very brief overview. For a more fully detailed explanation, I recommend registering on our website to receive Sierra Judgment Recovery’s free Judgment Recovery 101 Start-Up Guide. The Start-Up Guide is a condensed chapter-by-chapter summary of the full judgment recovery training program. If you haven’t already registered to receive the free start up guide, you can do that HERE.
There are literally thousands of judgment holders in every community. Information about their judgments and their contact information is on file at your local court house. These case files are public record. Many court houses now offer online access to civil case information free of charge.
You will send the judgment holder a specially designed, personalized letter offering your help with the enforcement of the judgment with no out of pocket cost to them. Since people continue to sue each other in ever-increasing numbers, your customers will always be plentiful.
A judgment recovery business is definitely NOT a get-rich-quick venture. Your income will directly reflect the amount of time and effort you devote to your new business. You should be able to earn some income in as little as 2 1/2 to 3 months, but it usually takes this much time to get the ball rolling. You’ll have to contact judgment holders, obtain signatures on assignments and file them with the court, locate the judgment debtors and their assets and initiate the court procedures to enforce the judgments.
Sierra Judgment Recovery has been heavily involved in the growth and development of the judgment recovery industry since 1997. Additionally, Christina Smiley is a founding member of the California Association of Judgment Professionals and held the position of Continuing Education Director for several years. She’s also a founding member of several other national industry-related associations. What this offers you is experience in dealing with a company that is doing more than merely providing information… We also enforce judgments!
Our training materials are extremely detailed and comprehensive and have recently undergone a major update. A constant effort is made to ensure that all of our members are aware of any new or recent industry changes that may have a direct affect on their business.
Most of the procedures you’ll be using to enforce judgments will be accomplished by simply filling out the appropriate court forms and filing them with the court.
In all our years of judgment recovery experience, we have never been threatened by a judgment debtor. The only time we’re usually even contacted by a debtor is when we’ve initiated that contact ourselves. As a precaution we always encourage members to use a business name and a post office box for all correspondence. This is just common sense and will protect your anonymity while maintaining a professional image.
Certainly not! There is no difference in the methods used to collect a small claims judgment versus a larger one that’s been awarded in a higher branch of court. In fact, we have several members who have been contacted by companies to collect very large judgment awards in the six figure range. This is not in any way uncommon.
There are many ways to locate the assets of judgment debtors and we cover them all. We will teach you how to find property, employers, bank accounts and other judgment debtor assets using the information available in public records and online databases, but some of the most valuable asset location available to you will come from private information resources, such as consumer credit reports.
These private information sources will reveal a wealth of information about your debtor and his or her assets. Once you’ve been assigned a judgment you will then be the legal judgment creditor and the owner of the judgment. You will have the legal right to obtain consumer credit history and other critical financial information about your debtors.
When a judgment is legally assigned to another person, all right, title and interest in the judgment is transferred to the assignee (you) and those same rights are revoked from the original judgment holder. This makes you, the assignee, the legal judgment creditor and owner of the judgment. By law this allows you to enforce the judgment on your own behalf. This is clearly dictated by civil code in all 50 states.
Yes! Many people will initially start their judgment recovery businesses part time. They also find that after six months or so that the income their new business is generating is more than enough to justify giving up any existing job and going with it full time. Still, we understand that it can be difficult to get a new business off the ground while still working another job.
While there is definitely a “learning curve” for this (or any) new business, the actual time it takes to get up to speed really depends on you as an individual, and how much time you have to devote to studying.
Typically, the average person is ready to at least get started in one to two weeks, though it does take a little longer to become absolutely proficient. Once you’ve been through and completed any particular procedure through the court system, it tends to become routine very quickly.
We do not have any bad feelings or reservations about the nature of the service we are providing. The money that we are recovering was ordered by the court for the judgment debtor to pay – usually for a good reason.
We strive to continually lead the way to provide our members with the most current training, resources and tools!
- Instant access to SJR’s highly accalimed Professional Judgment Recovery Training Program, plus free digital updates for life.
- All the letters, contracts and documents you’ll need provided as convenient templates.
- Unlimited support from SJR’s highly trained customer support staff.
- Cutting edge tools, resources and training for skip tracing, judgment enforcement, research and more.
- High quality and competitively priced asset searches, if you decide to outsource that part of the judgment enforcement process.
- The SJR Civil Case Information Online Access Guide.
- The SJR State-By-State Civil Statutes and Laws Research Guide.
- SJR Member Community Groups and Forums.
- Access to the SJR National Member Directory.
- Free Judgment Referral Pass-alongs.
- Free Certification.
Yes! We’ve provided you with dozens of our best letters, contracts and forms – all as fill-in-the-blank templates. Fill them in and print them out, or merge them with your preferred word processing program.
- Solicitation Letters: Use these to send your offer to individual judgment holders and businesses. Why reinvent the wheel? These letters are proven to consistently generate a 30% – 35% response to your offer.
- Assignment Agreements: Choose the terms and agreements for your judgment assignments that best meet the needs of you and your customers.
- Assignment of Judgment Form: This form is absolutely critical for your judgment recovery business. It is this document that legally transfers ownership of the judgment from the original judgment holder to yourself. Developed to meet the legal requirements for assigning judgments in every state.
- Post-Judgment Interest Tracking Form and Calculator Comprehensive Collection Worksheet
- Debtor Notification Letter: Designed to get the results you need while keeping you out of any potential trouble with debt collection legislation.
- Levying Instructions: Use these written instructions to ensure that your directions to the sheriff are clear and concise, so your asset seizures and enforcement procedures will happen exactly the way you want them to
This is just a small sampling of the comprehensive set of letters, contracts and forms you’ll receive.
Attorney representation is not required for you to enforce judgments that have been assigned to you. When a judgment is assigned, all right, title and interest in the judgment is transferred without recourse from the original creditor to the assignee. This means that the assignee now legally owns the judgment and can proceed to enforce the judgment on their own behalf.
No legal background – or any other sort of specialized knowledge or experience – is required in order for you to learn and be profitable in a judgment recovery business. Most of our current members didn’t have any sort of industry-related experience either when they began. That was certainly kept in mind when this course was written and designed.
You will need to do some research into local procedures because court procedures tend to vary (slightly) from state to state and even county to county, but the concepts and general procedures are all typically the same throughout the United States and are covered in step by step detail in the training materials.
You’ll also have access to SJR’s exclusive State-By-State Civil Research Guide. This guide will provide you with in-depth information about enforcing judgments in each and every state. You’ll have information about judgment interest rates, court structures, civil codes for judgment enforcement procedures, direct links to your court’s website and court rules and more.
Yes! The Start-Up Guide is a condensed chapter-by-chapter summary of our full judgment recovery training program. You can sign up to get our free Judgment Recovery 101 Start-Up Guide HERE.
These days many of us are fortunate enough to have free online access to civil case file information, and our marketing research can be done at any hour of the day or night right from your computer at home. In fact, many new courts are coming online all the time.
The average cost spent to locate a judgment debtor and their assets is about $20 – $30, which is the cost of a credit report and other fee-based information reports. We try to use free public records and information provided by the original judgment holder as much as possible to keep those costs low (free is definitely better!), but some important information about the judgment debtors’ assets will not be available through free public records.
Once the assets have been located, the cost to seize those assets through the court generally runs around $35.00 – $50.00, depending on where you are and what type of enforcement procedure you’re going to initiate. Most costs incurred during the enforcement process are reimbursable to yourself off the top of what you collect as post-judgment related costs and can be added to the judgment amount, so the debtor must pay for them.
Occasionally, with tough cases, if you feel the effort is worthwhile, you can use an outside resource to locate employment, bank account information or other assets. These searches tend to be more costly (around $150) but these are typically billed on a no hit – reduced fee basis, which means if no information is located, then there is only a nominal fee for the service. We do provide asset location services through SJR Strategic Research, if you decide you’d like to outsource this part of the enforcement process.
Judgment recovery can be done nationally and we currently have active members in all 50 states as well as a few in Canada.
The laws in place to enforce judgments basically encompass the same generic procedures throughout the US as well as Canada. However, you will need to research your state’s specific procedures since they will vary slightly from state to state. What is called a Writ of Execution in one state may be called a Writ of Fifa or Garnishment in your state, but they are basically the same form, with the same function, called by a different name.
Our members have access to SJR’s State-By-State Civil Research Guide. This guide will provide you with in-depth information about enforcing judgments in each and every state. You’ll have information about judgment interest rates, court structures, civil codes for judgment enforcement procedures, direct links to your court’s website and court rules and more.
A judgment recovery business does not require any special equipment though you will need a lockable filing cabinet to store sensitive information. You may also want to consider a dedicated phone line for your business and a post office box. We have multiple phone lines, but that wasn’t really necessary in the beginning. If you already have a computer and printer then you’re pretty well set up!
These days, nearly all of our judgment recovery work can be accomplished with a phone and computer, at any time of the day (or night). There are many, many ways to locate information about your judgment debtor online and much of it is free public record. The information that does require a fee is becoming more and more inexpensive as the demand for that information is increasing. Although our training does cover any and all possible methods used to locate debtors and their assets, you’ll find that most of the work can and will be accomplished without being required to leave your home.
Many courts now provide online access to civil case file information, and you can even file paperwork with the court by mail or electronic correspondence. As a member, you’ll have access to the SJR Online Access Guide which provides direct links to courts that offer online access to civil case file information in each state.
Some companies do sell judgment ‘leads’, but for the most part those of us in the industry who are serious do not buy leads. The primary logic for this is: 1) This information is FREE – why pay for it? and, 2) We have no way of knowing how many other people have purchased (and subsequently solicited) the same judgment holders.
We will provide you with extensive training about how and where to find judgment leads. For those who don’t have time to conduct research at the court house, there are several alternatives to successfully market your business. We’ve included solicitation letters used to send directly to commercial companies to gain their business, which will usually result in multiple assignments since these businesses typically have many judgments awarded to them. We’ve also included advertisements and other alternative marketing suggestions. Also, many areas are now making case file access available online, which makes this type of research easier and does not require you to review files at the actual court.
Having said all that, we do pass along free judgment referrals that we receive from our online judgment referral form. When judgment holders contact us asking for assistance with the enforcement of their judgments, we pass along the referral to our members at no charge or obligation.
We’re here to help! SJR is very well known in the industry for the outstanding quality of our customer support. Ongoing support is included when you join SJR, so there is never any additional fee and we maintain a highly trained customer support staff.