I won my small claims court case...now what?

Question

I filed a small claims case against a contractor. The contractor did not show so the judge ruled in my favor. I didn’t want to ask the judge but...how do I go about collecting the payment?

I’m concerned I won’t get the money because this contractor goes by 2 company names. I filed a case for both companies but the judge said he could only put a judgement on one. Both companies are no longer have active licenses numbers (something I realized after the fact). Any tips on how to collect payments would be appreciated!

John M Chludzinski · Answer

Depending your state laws, normally you would find a bank account that is active for that company and then serve that bank with your copy of the judgement to levy the funds in the account. One way to find out which bank the company was doing business under is to look at what bank cashed your check to the company. The bank and account number should be on the cancelled check back. Good luck!

Caleb Heimsoth · Answer

@Amy Xu you’re likely never going to see that money. Judgement or not.

James Wise · Answer

That's the thing with suing folks. Winning a judgement is relatively easy. Collecting on it is much tougher. When deciding whether or not it's worth the time and money to sue someone you've got to look at the likelihood of collection. If I were you I would take the judgement to an attorney and discuss your options for garnishment & liens.

Pratik P. · Answer

I actually just won a small claims case recently and learned a lot about collecting than I wanted to lol. Do you have their bank account number by any chance? You could try to do a bank levy if you have the bank name and account number. There's a process to do this through the sheriff after you get a writ of execution. Sorry you have to deal with this. How much was the judgment for?

Jason Forgey · Answer

@Amy Xu How much money is owed?

You need to file an Abstract of Judgment in the county deed records. Collecting is harder than winning your case. It might be easier to go get more dead than to dedicate too much time to it.

I would get the judgment filed and sell the debt to be honest.

Gregory DeRosso · Answer

https://www.judgmentmarketplace.com/

I've sold a judgment though them. I only got about 40% of it but is better than nothing.

David Avetisyan · Answer

You can try to seek the assistance of a debt collection agency, but in reality you won’t see even a penny from this.

Good luck!

Jason Goretzki · Answer

Bad contractors go out of their way to structure themselves to be in a position that they are untouchable. The judgement shows you are right in the eyes of the court as to your disagreement, & as others have said , does not collect the money for you. This contractor likely does not own property, a vehicle, not have bank accounts in his name. For the amount owed, is it worth your time to keep chasing him? This is why due diligence is so valuable.

Amy Xu · Answer

@Pratik P.thanks I don’t have their account number and when I view the check online the back of the check is white. Not sure if I call my bank they will have a method to see which account the check went into? The judgement was only for $1505 so not too much.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

they are called factious names.. you seem them in the paper all the time AMY doing business as XYC LLC

I won my small claims court case...now what?

I won my small claims court case...now what?

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