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Alright,
so two months have gone by, and your friend has
been mysteriously absent. You've called his house
and left several increasingly anxious messages
- which he doesn't return. Just to make the story
more interesting, imagine you've heard from a
second-hand source that Dan has received a hefty
sum of cash from a recently departed relative,
so you know he has the money to repay your loan.
Now
six months have gone by and Dan seems to be doing
well enough, but he still won't pay you back.
You do what the average, law-abiding citizen does,
and you take the son-of-a-gun to Small Claims
Court. And besides, you could really use the money
to put braces on your kid, John Jr.
The
Court Clerk and the Judicial Court System:
After
paying your filing fee you are met with an onslaught
of foreign looking forms that must be completed
before you can proceed.
You
take these forms home and puzzle them out, return
to the court and hand them over to the court clerk,
who promptly tells you they're not filled out
correctly and hands them right back.
I'm
sure you're confused by this point, so you ask
the clerk to explain where the problem lies. Now,
getting information out of a court clerk can be
like pulling teeth if you don't know the right
questions to ask. So likely, if you get any information
at all, you're more turned around than when you
asked in the first place. But, somehow, you manage
to get it done correctly and you schedule your
court hearing date.
Your
day in court arrives (finally) and - wonder of
wonders - Dan doesn't even show up and the judge
awards you the judgment by default. You breathe
a big sigh of relief and go home waiving your
piece of paper in triumph and tell your wife to
go ahead and shedule that orthodontist appointment
for John Jr.
A
month goes by.
No
word from Dan. No word from the court either.
You're thinking there must have been some hiccup
in the legal process and that's why you haven't
received a big, fat check in the mail yet. Naturally,
you call the court clerk - that lovely fountain
of information - to ask why you haven't received
your check yet.
Now
comes the big surprise.
A
real whopper.
It's
totally up to you to make Dan pay. The court
can't help you. So sorry. Have a nice day.
You
can garnish Dan's wages, but do you know where
he's working? What if he's working under the table?
You can seize Dan's bank account, but do you know
which bank? You can make the sheriff take that
used car and sell it, but do you know how, or
where the car is? Probably not any of the above.
Back to square one, which is nowhere, by the way.
Can
you see the need for a judgment recovery specialist
here? Someone who not only knows what court procedures
to use to enforce the judgment, but how to get
the information needed to implement them.
Enter
the Judgment Recovery Specialist:
(Horns and Trumpets...)
One
day, a couple of years later, while grumbling
over all the bills in the mail, you notice an
official looking letter from Statewide Judgment
Recovery. Now, believe it or not, you had really
forgotten all about the judgment you won against
Dan. Of course, this letter sparked your curiosity,
so you open it.
It
isn't exactly what you expected, but the next
best thing. This company is telling you that they'd
run across your judgment down at the courthouse
and noticed it hasn't been paid. They want to
know if you would be interested in letting them
enforce the judgment. Since the judgment recovery
company is willing to pay for all of the fees
associated with the collection of the judgment
up front, no money will have to come out of your
pocket.
Figuring
you have nothing to lose, since it seems like
pigs are going to fly before Dan pays up on his
debt, you call the judgment recovery company.
You take a minute to review your case with a friendly,
and - big surprise - helpful person on the other
end of the line.
The
person on the phone tells you they'd be willing
to do all of this for you in exchange for 50%
of whatever is collected. It really just turns
out to be a simple matter of signing a couple
of agreements and turning the judgment recovery
specialist loose on Dan. God speed.
Now,
let's give this faceless judgment recovery person
an identity. Let's call her Beverly. Beverly is
a highly trained, specialized kind of bull dog.
She's equipped with everything she needs and all
the tricks of the trade to make sure you get your
money.
After
Beverly receives your signed agreements, she files
them with our esteemed court clerk, who is actually
on good terms with Beverly because they deal with
each other all the time. Then the real work begins.
The
chase is on! Since you didn't really have very
much information to give Beverly about Dan when
you signed the agreements, it is now up to her
to find Dan and his assets. No problem for Beverly,
she eats cases like this one for breakfast. In
no time at all she nailed down where Dan was banking
and was ready to get the ball rolling.
I
feel I should explain to you about what happens
when a judgment holder assigns a judgment over
to someone like Beverly. Beverly becomes, in the
eyes of the law, the judgment creditor. She has
exactly the same rights of enforcement that you
had to use the powerful legal remedies provided
by law to force Dan to pay the debt he owes. Actually,
Dan now owes the debt to Beverly.
Beverly
filed a form with the court and sent the sheriff,
who acted as her levying officer, over to the
bank to seize the account. When she received the
check, she reimbursed herself for the fees she
incurred (around $7 for a credit report and $35
for court filing and levying fees).
Any
filing fees that Beverly spends are reimbursable
as costs after judgment, so Beverly is able to
add the amount of these fees to the judgment.
Dan will ultimately pay for them. Then she kept
half for herself, wrote a check for the remainder
and mailed it to you.
The
ending to this story is a happy one. You received
a substantial chunk of the money that Dan owed
you and Beverly got a hefty well-deserved sum
as well, and John Jr. got those braces he really
(really) needed.
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