You’ve gone to Superior Court, the Special Civil Part, in your county in New Jersey, or the county in which the filing took place, and the judge has entered a judgment in your behalf. What to do now? Following is how to go about collecting that judgment awarded to you for money if your doing it pro se, that is by yourself, without an attorney. If you do have an attorney you may want to read up on these procedures anyway, so as to be able to know what’s going on.
If money is owed to you because you have been awarded a judgment in the Special Civil Part, first, you should contact the person who owes you the money to discuss payment as they may not have been in court when you were awarded the judgment. Even if they were in court for the decision, you should still talk to them first, about setting up payment. Of course you should try and get payment right then and there or set up a payment plan to get things moving. If they cannot afford to pay you everything they owe you than it’s only reasonable that you set up a payment plan. If you do not receive the money that is owed you, whether it is then and there or over time, then there are several ways the court can further help you. However the court cannot guarantee, no matter how it helps you to collect the debt owed to you, that you will get your debtor (the person which owes you the money) to clear the debt. In other words, while the court can pass judgment in your favor and do some other things to help you get that debt paid to you, in the final analysis it cannot guarantee that all of it’s efforts will amount to your getting the money from the debtor. Now with that said, let’s take a look at some of the ways the court, can and will, help you collect your debt, should you be having trouble collecting it after the judgment.
Execution on Goods and Personal Property
An execution on goods and personal property lets the court try to collect the money owed on a judgment from the debtor’s bank account or personal property. This is usually all that is needed. People who are playing cat and mouse with you can’t play cat and mouse anymore once you’ve gotten a writ of execution. This method will usually satisfy any money owed to you. Simply because if they’ve got any money in the bank or items of value they could have sold to pay you off which they’ve been holding out on you, you can get to these without them being able to stop you. It’s essentially the same thing as when a bank or finance company repossesses a vehicle because someone hasn’t kept up with their payments for whatever reason. And you thought you didn’t have any power. The truth is you’ve got the same powers as big banks or financing companies. But you do have to do your homework.
If you don’t already know where the person (debtor) has a bank account in New Jersey then, you need to try and find out. If you are having trouble finding out on your own or simply don’t want the hassle then, one option is to file with the court a petition stating the amount due and asking the court to issue an order requiring the debtor or anyone with information about the debtors assets to answer questions concerning these assets at a place and time specified in the court order. This is called a court order for discovery. After you get a copy of the order you can serve it to the debtor and/or other person named on the order personally or by return receipt requested certified mail. This has to be done though, at least 10 days before the appearance date. If the person(s) does not show up at the court ordered specified time and place, they’re in hot water. In other words, they are subject to contempt sanctions enforceable by the court. Notice I said ‘subject to.’ The court should always allow for a very good and reasonable reason for not being at the specified place on time. Something like “I was in a bad accident at that time and here’s the paperwork to prove it” will alleviate any sanctions someone is subject to for failing to show up.
Bank Levy
Continuing to relate to you your options available to you through the court, if you know where the debtor has a checking or savings account in New Jersey, you may ask that a Court Officer collect your debt from the money in the account. When doing so you need to provide the name of the bank, the address, and the account number, if possible. The reason for this is the court is not in the business of searching for this information for the public. In other words, you cannot request a Court Officer do your homework for you. There are professional which do this, privately. In requesting the Court Officer collect the debt for you, you are beginning what is called a Bank Levy. After the money has been levied upon by the Court Officer, it is considered frozen. You must then file a Motion to Turn Over Funds with the court and serve a copy of this motion upon the debtor and the bank. In other words, you’re asking the court to now require the bank and the debtor to turn over those funds. At this point the court will take a look at things and either grant the motion or not. If the court grants the motion, the judge will sign the Order to Turn Over Funds that you submitted with your motion. This Order to Turn Over Funds will be delivered to the bank by the Court Officer.
Information Subpoena
Another option available to you through the court if you don’t know where the debtor has a checking or savings account, or what personal property the debtor may have of value which could have been and/or can be sold is to obtain an Information Subpoena from the Office of the Special Civil Part Clerk. An InformationSubpoena is a court paper containing a written set of questions about the debtor’s assets. You may serve this Information Subpoena either personally or by Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested, and by regular mail. Within your mailing you must provide a postage paid, self-addressed envelope. At this point, the debtor must answer and return the Information Subpoena within 14 days from the date on which it was served. If the debtor does not answer the Information Subpoena, he or she is up a creek without a paddle. He or she is ‘subject to contempt sanctions’ enforceable by the court. Let’s say they don’t answer the the Information Subpoena and it’s been 22 days since they’ve received it. Or they haven’t answered it in it’s entirety. What can you do now? Well, you can apply to the court for an Order allowing you to serve a separate Information Subpoena upon banking institutions, employers, or businesses who owe money to the debtor. At this point the Judge may or may not sign off on it. If the court signs off on it, the same mailing requirements need to be followed. The same requirements placed upon the debtor apply to whomever you may have Subpoenaed for the Information as well. If they don’t reply, they, too, will have to answer to the court. See, I told you, you have power. Just don’t abuse it.
It is important to note certain restrictions as it relates to collecting an award for money from the Superior Court Special Civil Part. At no time will the court leave the debtor completely destitute. In other words, if you manage to get to the debtor’s personal belongings, the debtor has the right to retain $1000 worth of belongings. If the debtor doesn’t have $1000 worth of personal belongings, you cannot do anything in connection with the belongings to satisfy what is owed to you.
If you ask the that the Court Officer seize the debtor’s motor vehicle, you must be able to show that the vehicle is registered in the debtor’s name. You can do this by getting a certified copy of of the title and a certified lien search from the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles. If the value of the motor vehicle is less than $1000, tough luck for you.
The court cannot, by law, levy on welfare benefits, Social Security benefits, SSI, veteran’s benefits or unemployment benefits. These are irrevocably earned and/or untouchable as granted by society and it’s laws. If in your heart, you would have liked to have gone after these benefits but now know you can’t, you probably love money too much in the first place and need to do a little soul-searching, now knowing these things.
Also, once you apply for and the court issues a writ of execution on goods and personal property and/or wages it is required, as written into law, that there be a fee of 10% added to the amount of the judgment as the Court Officer’s commission. This fee is listed on the writ and is payable to the Court Officer as the judgment is collected. The 10% is automatically taken from the money collected by the Court Officer.
Once a writ of execution is issued, the payment(s) are going to be made directly to the Court Officer or the court and not directly to you as the creditor. You give up that right when applying to the court for assistance in obtaining the reward. Once they receive said payment(s) from your debtor they take their commission and send the balance to you. If by chance the debtor makes a payment to you after you’ve initiated help from the court, you are still required to pay the 10% commission. This applies to partial payments or full payment whether you are paid directly or the debtor pays through the court.
Docketed Judgment
Lastly, what if you or a Court Officer cannot collect the money due you on the judgment for whatever reason? You may have the judgment form the Special CivilPart recorded in the Superior Court Clerk’s Office in Trenton. Once your judgment is recorded in the Superior Court, the debtor cannot sell with clear title any real estate owned in New Jersey until your debt is paid. In other words, even if they have managed, honestly or dishonestly, to avoid paying their debt to you, they aren’t going to be able to sell property in New Jersey without you getting your money first. This is called a Docketed Judgment.
Hopefully this information has been helpful in your unfortunate circumstances, however they’ve arisen. Please note that I am not an attorney. Nor is any of this information legal advice. This information has been gathered from the court, itself, for my personal use. And while it is accurate, it is by no means complete in it’s telling through this article of what procedures and requirements are needed in your personal set of circumstances should you have the need to collect money from a judgment. You should consider consulting with an attorney to obtain further legal advice in the event you need to know how to go about collecting a money judgment in the state of New Jersey. Or you may choose to do so pro se, on your own. However you go about it, make the administration of fair justice and peace your guiding principles.
