This writer had a question for me, after visiting my web site at
http://www.peggyhedrick.com.
Your website is very helpful but I do have one technical question. I have a judgment that is expiring (ten years from the date of my Judgment). I have had no success collecting anything. Do I need to just have the "Motion for revival of a Judgment" FILED by the expiration, or do I actually have to have the debtor SERVED by that date? Thank You.
The writer had visited my web site and was referring to the page with the title "Collecting Judgments" http://www.peggyhedrick.com/judgments.html. For the answer to his question, go back to the web site, and once you get there, check the subject: "Red Lights." Read the "red lights" and then go to Time Lines, which follows.
The preface to the Time Lines section, cautions the reader that "Just because your debtor won't pay does not mean you cannot ultimately collect your judgment. You can lose your judgment if you do not watch your time limits." There are, then, six numbered paragraphs regarding your time limits, which includes the "presumption" that your Judgment has been paid if it hasn't been collected TEN YEARS from the date the Judge or Jury ruled in your favor. It can be "revived." The answer to my writer's inquiry is in paragraph number six:
6. REVIVAL OF JUDGMENTS. A lawyer may file for you a "Motion for revival of a Judgment." When that motion is filed, a Judge signs an "Order to Show Cause" directed to the person who owes you money. If that person cannot be found, the notice can be published in the newspaper. The person who owes you money has a specific date by which he or she must appear in Court, and show the Judge why the Judgment should not be "revived." If he cannot show a good reason why it should not be revived, then the Judge signs an Order, reviving the Judgment as of that day...That complicated procedure is the reason that I suggest, as the fifth "Red Light" and in paragraph numbered two under "Time Lines," that the person with the judgment to be collected should see a lawyer at least two or three years before the deadline. Three to four months before the ten years is up may not be too late, but circumstances will have to be just right, and the writer will have to find a lawyer that has the time to jump through a few hoops to persuade a Judge to sign the Order reviving the Judgment before time runs out....and your ten years begins again!!!!!
How to find the right lawyer is on another page of my web site
http://www.peggyhedrick.com/findlawyer.html. But, a rule of thumb would be, start with the same lawyer who got you your Judgment in the first place.
Posted by Peggy S. Hedrick at 7:59am
