After a grueling 4-day trial full of witnesses, questioning, and jury deliberation, the Judge finally announces, “Verdict in favor of the Plaintiff.” You are elated, the Judge just told you that you won your trial and the defendant you sued for property damage owes you $250,000.00. Now you can finally relax. You are expecting the money to hit your account any minute now. But two weeks go by, and you haven’t received anything. A month goes by, and the defendant says he’ll pay you soon. Still nothing. Now it’s been three months, the defendant is refusing your phone calls, and is completely refusing to pay you. How is that possible? Didn’t the Judge say that the defendant owes you that money? What do you do now?

Most people are surprised to learn that in civil cases, the case doesn’t simply end when the Jury comes back with the verdict. In most civil cases, that is just the first step. Now, it is on you to go and collect the money that the Court has found you are entitled to. Just because the Court has found that the defendant owes you money, does not mean that you are the only person the defendant has to pay. There are a number of steps that you can take to make sure you are actually able to collect your money, and to make sure that the money you just won actually finds its way into your bank account.

At this stage, the defendant has now become a Judgment Debtor, and you are now considered a Judgment Creditor. The first step is to record a certified copy of your judgment with the Department of State. While this is not required, it is an important factor that will determine when and if you will get paid. If a defendant ow1`es multiple people money, Florida law will determine the order in which the creditors will be paid. To do so, it will consider multiple factors, including the order in which the creditors recorded and/or secured their debt. If someone secured their debt before you did, they might be paid first. Therefore, we recommend recording your judgment immediately after the Court enters a Final Order granting your judgment.

From there, there are a few different ways in which you can collect your debt. First, you can seek to “garnish” a defendant’s bank account or paycheck. Obtaining a Writ of Garnishment means that if (1) the defendant has money in a bank account, you can have the bank pay you directly, or (2) anytime the defendant gets paid, a portion of the paycheck will go directly to you until your debt is satisfied(1). The process to obtain a valid Writ of Garnishment is a creature of statute and must be followed carefully and exactly.

Another way to collect your judgment is to obtain have the sheriff seize certain real or personal property of the defendant to satisfy an unpaid judgment. This involves obtaining a Writ of Attachment, governed by Florida Statute 76.

However, in order to access these remedies, a party seeking to collect judgment must have specific information about the property, assets, or money they are seeking to collect. This often involves discovery, depositions, and investigations in aid of execution. During this process, the judgment creditor is entitled to ask about the judgment debtor’s finances, assets, and other debts to find the information necessary to collect the funds. There are many rules, nuances, and strict deadlines involved with the post-judgment collection process. If you have any concerns as to the collection of a judgment debt, you can reach out to Haber Law for assistance.

(1) This process of subject to certain exemptions which limit the ability of a judgment creditor to collect money from a judgment debtor who is considered the primary wage earner for a family known as the “head of household” exemption.