Judgment Enforcement And California Civil Sheriffs

I am not an attorney, I am a Judgment and Collection Agency Broker. This article is my opinion, from my experience in California, and laws vary in every state. If you want a strategy to use or legal advice, you should contact an attorney. An important foundation of civil law is jurisdiction. Most often, a judgment needs to be domesticated to the state and county, close to the judgment debtor. If a bank conducts business in several states, sometimes you can have the sheriff garnish a branch in the creditor's state, and levy/garnish far-away judgment debtor bank funds with long-arm statues.

NY has made progress in this area. If a judgment debtor has an account in any bank, and that bank has a branch in New York, one can garnish on the account in NY, no matter where the account was opened. One domesticates a judgment in NY, and garnishes the New York bank account.

However, in New York, there remains the hassle of a new trial needed to domesticate a default judgment there. Also, in NY, most often the first $1,716 to $2,500 in the judgment debtor's bank account is exempt from levy.

All levies are done with marshals or sheriffs, in the county where the assets of a debtor is located. In California, there is a wide variation in the performance and policies of the County Sheriffs, in all fifty-eight counties.

Every Sheriff in California has their own policy on how levies can be served. Always verify sheriff policies before you pay a sheriff to garnish a bank account. Usually, on a California levy, the bank sends a memorandum of garnishee to the sheriff. However, if the levy is satisfied in full, the bank does not have to return the memorandum of garnishee to the sheriff.

It's a big advantage, when one can choose which county the bank levy will be done at. Each civil sheriff office is different, all require payment. Some will serve garnishments themselves, others require you to hire a registered process server. Some civil sheriffs are quick, others are slow. All Civil Sheriff Departments In California are professional and do the best job they can.

When it comes to turning around, or serving, levy papers; most California Civil Sheriffs are average. Some are slower or faster than average, and below is a list of what I have observed about non-average California County Civil Sheriff departments in recent years:

Los Angeles County - the main downtown Los Angeles civil sheriff is very slow. Use a registered process server to do levies. The sheriffs of Santa Monica, Indio, Van Nuys, Chatsworth, Riverside, Burbank, and Lancaster, are all very slow.

Los Angeles County - The sheriffs of Chula Vista, West Covina, Torrance, Pasadena, Inglewood, and El Monte, are all fast. The Malibu Sheriff is fast, however they are hard to locate on a web search: Malibu Civil Sheriff, 1725 Main Street, Santa Monica, 90401 (310) 553-5033.

Orange County - this sheriff redacts social security numbers on garnishment instructions to banks. Use a process server, or ask the bank to phone you for the debtor SS number. Orange county has a centralized location for issuing writs and abstract of judgments, no matter which Orange County court generated the judgment.

Sacramento County - has a very quick and efficient Civil Sheriff department.

San Francisco County - very quick.

Santa Clara County - fairly quick, however it can take them years to return an unsuccessful garnishment report.


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