Judgment Foolishness

I am not an attorney, I am a judgment referral specialist (Judgment Broker). Nothing in any of my articles should ever be considered legal advice. This article is my opinion about foolish beliefs that stop judgments from being recovered.

The valid reasons why judgments are not enforced are bad enough. (The number one reason is because most judgment debtors are poor.) This article is about some shenanigans and illogical thinking that can make things worse, and stop judgments from being recovered.

First, the ways Original Judgment Creditors (OJCs) (the judgment owners) impair their chances of ever getting money from their judgments:

1) "My judgment is worth the face value and all accrued interest." That belief is based on theory, not reality. A more realistic answer is a judgment is worth what a buyer will pay you. The average payment is about 3% of the face value, or 50% of whatever is recovered in the future. (Or it is worth what available assets the debtor possesses, that you can find, and pay someone to collect, or pay the sheriff to collect.) And, if the judgment debtor filed for bankruptcy protection, most judgments are worth zero.

2) "The debtor must to pay me." Sorry. There is no law and no incentive for a debtor to pay off a judgment - unless the debtor has assets - and one spends time and money to collect those assets - and even then, nothing is guaranteed. Long ago, when property was getting refinanced every year and prices for homes was increasing, and almost everyone had a job and wanted to buy goodies on credit, recording liens was an easy way to get a judgment paid. Those days are almost gone, or at least are much rarer now.

3) "I have a $(795|895) judgment and I refuse to pay fifty percent on a future-payment basis to get it recovered, I want to pay thirty percent at most." That won't fly, as it costs a lot of money to recover a judgment. Nobody will ever recover a small judgment for thirty percent, because it is not worth their time to enforce a judgment for so little profit. (Judgment Enforcers are in the business to make money, and there is no room for personal grudges in judgment recovery.)

4) "My judgment debtor can't go bankrupt." The truth is they can. If your judgment is specifically for fraud, and you or your lawyer show up in court on the date of the hearing, and bring that fraud to the court's attention - and work to make your judgment debt declared non-dischargeable, there is a good chance you may be able to pay more to get your judgment recovered. If your judgment is not for fraud, it will probably be lost.

The beliefs above will not help a judgment to be recovered.

Next, let's cover the ways Judgment Enforcers impair their chances of ever recovering money from most of the judgments they are working on.

1) "I take every judgment that comes in, one of them may pay off." The truth is, you do not have any business taking a judgment you cannot recover money on, unless you buy the judgment outright, or fully inform the OJC that your plan is to hold onto the judgment for a long time without taking actions other than recording liens.

2) "I enforce judgments anywhere." The truth is unless you hire lawyers close to the judgment debtors, when the judgment debtors are far away - you should only take judgments local to you, and refer any that are further away than you want to drive to.

3) "I reject 97% of the judgments that come in, and I simply say no thanks." When you reject a judgment, always take the time to explain why to the OJC. If you don not, the OJC will just keep contacting Judgment Enforcers or a Judgment Broker, over and over, until they consistently hear the same valid reason, for instance "your judgment debtors are poor". Only telling the truth consistently, can educate an OJC with a difficult judgment.

When original judgment owners (OJCs) think their judgments are worth their face value or more, and Judgment Enforcers (JEs) do not consistently explain reality to the OJCs, it creates a loop where OJCs may contact hundreds of JEs, wasting lots of time and further reducing the chances the judgment will ever be even partially recovered.

Some OJC contacted me 2 years ago, and I then told the OJC the truth - their 71-year old judgment debtor is poor. Then, over the next 2 years, I get the same judgment lead from about 100 JEs, for the same OJC.

The examples vary, one example is an OJC with a million dollar judgment, with a debtor who is 67 and poor. The OJC strongly believes their judgment is worth more than one million dollars, and for 2 years, they bent countless ears, wanting $500K upfront for their judgment the first year, $450K the next year, and just called me recently, wanting 400K for their judgment.

For two years, that OJC did not face reality, and keep shopping their judgment, falsely believing shopping was their solution. The reality that I told them 2 years ago, is still true. A judgment's worth depends on the debtor, not the needs, hopes, or wishes of anyone.


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Mark Shapiro - Judgment Broker - Free leads for Judgment Enforcers and contingency collection attorneys.

http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - is the judgment super-site where Judgments quickly get Purchased or Enforced by the best!