When Your Judgment Is Against A Church

I am not a lawyer, I am a judgment and debt matchmaking specialist (Judgment and Collection Agency Broker). This article is my opinion, from my experience in California, and laws vary in every state. If you need a strategy to use or legal advice, please contact an attorney. There are bad apples in every group, and pastors and churches get their share. When you own a civil money judgment against a church or a pastor, there can be 2 extra challenges:

First, there is a reluctance by some to enforce a judgment against a religious person or entity. This shouldn't be a problem, because the bible reminds us, in Romans 13:8, that we all reap what we sow, and "Let no debt go unpaid".

Next, there can be the problem of most churches are tax-exempt LLC or corporate entities that may hide the assets of their Pastor and other important members at churches.

As an example, what if you have a landlord/tenant (also known as unlawful detainer) judgment against a pastor of his own church. The pastor's wife works there, and the church is a corporation, and even their children work there as "contract labor". The church owns several properties including the big house the pastor and his family live in.

If one tried to levy the pastor's wages by serving the church corporation, they would likely answer that the pastor is a volunteer, not a paid employee. This now becomes a tough judgment, because only the pastor is named as a debtor, not the church itself.

Even if the church corporation itself was named a debtor on the judgment, there might be corporate shenanigans that can make a judgment recovery difficult. If your judgment was against the church, one could have the sheriff garnish the collection plates as they are taken into the back of the church. One could also pay the sheriff garnish other assets of the corporation.

However, if your judgment is only against the pastor, and the judgment is small, one could be better off to give up, unless they are willing to invest a lot of time and money, or for the "principal of it", or to make it a learning experience.

If you performed debtor exams, with document production requests on the debtor and the officers of the corporation, you may find interesting things. Perhaps, the church is paying the paster's credit cards, cable bill, insurance, car payments, and more - instead of paying him a conventional wage.

It's not cheap or easy to pierce a corporate veil. One might require a lawyers's help to prevail in court. If the pastor is using the corporation as their personal piggy bank, then the corporate assets might be subject to a garnishment.

If the pastor gets "imputed income", where payments of his expenses and costs of living are considered income attributable to him, they probably have a monetary value. If so, 25% of that value could be going to you through the sheriff, the same 25% that a California wage levy could produce, or a reasonable percentage to request for on an assignment order.

Corporate entities can't just pay for a judgment debtor's expenses and support him and his lifestyle, and then successfully claim that he is only a volunteer, because that would be considered imputed income to the judgment debtor.

In theory, a lawsuit could make the church (or any company paying a judgment debtor with imputed income) pay what they would have paid on a successful wage levy. Of course, when served with a new creditor's lawsuit, most corporate entities would encourage the judgment debtor to satisfy the judgment immediately.

If you have time and money, or want to have it be a learning experience, you can attempt to make the debtor, or their imputed income employer, satisfy the judgment by proving that the corporate entity is a sham, imputed income, or a personal piggy bank for the debtor.

Visit your law library, or research your state case law or codes on the subjects. You may find motions or pleadings that may easily become a template for your case. If you do this Pro Per, have a lawyer review your motions, to reduce the chance of a judge's objection.


------

http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - the fastest solution, where Judgments and debts quickly get recovered by the best - matched for free to your debtor. JudgmentBuy.com is the fastest way for creditors and collection agencies to find each other.

Mark Shapiro - the best judgment expert, with the best quality free leads for enforcers, collection agencies and contingency collection attorneys.