Levying Web Sites

What if your debtor appears to conceal their income and assets, yet the debtor own some neat domain name with a cool web site? Could you have the levy the debtor's internet domain name to satisfy your judgment debt? In theory yes, although in the real world it might not work. My articles are my opinions and are not, legal advice. I am the judgment referral expert, and not an attorney. When you ever need legal advice or a strategy to use, you should contact an attorney.

In recent years, I have read in many places that one may garnish your debtor's domain name, but I've never heard of it actually working in real life. In the past, I went to a seminar where the instructor was an attorney telling judgment recovery experts and attorneys the way to garnish internet domain names, with sample court motions to accomplish that. The only problem is, over the years, I've talked with several enforcers and lawyers that said they tried that motion template and advice; and later the judge said no to their motion. Who knows, maybe web site or internet domain name levies may end up being a standard legal process, including a checkbox on writs of execution someday.

These days, it is not your internet domain name, it's what you work to accomplish with it. As an example, when you are searching on the web, you don't usually go to www.search.com. Even though it is a good search website, you most likely visit Google, Bing, or Yahoo - to search for things, as these companies worked hard to increase the value of their internet domain names.

I think the reason domain names themselves can't be levied in real life is because they are leased, not really owned by their "owners". That becomes clear when you do not make a payment for your yearly domain registration and lose the domain. Instead of trying to garnish your debtor's domain name itself, attempt to discover the way that website for that internet domain makes their income, and how to levy or attach that money. Here's some theory on how to garnish only an internet domain name:

In California, the EJL (Enforcement of Judgments Laws) don't offer any way for a judgment creditor to "reach" the property of a judgment debtor's internet domain name. The best theory appears to be that a turnover order via a noticed motion can result in a judge ruling that judgment debtor to give up all title, rights, and interest in a domain name; and then do all that is required to accomplish this task.

Such a motion may be captioned something like: "Order Transferring Right To Domain Name". The motion and proposed order would be done with pleading paper, ordering your judgment debtor to contact their domain vendor to transfer the debtor's ownership interests in the domain by filling out whatever forms are necessary to effect the surrender. This kind of motion and proposed order would specify the debtor will do an affirmative action to transfer such rights, title and interests (a bundle of rights) for the debtor's domain name. Just like any other judgment debtor property garnishment, the asset will have to be sold by a levying officer.

Adding a restraining order proposal to these kind of motions may be a good idea, with conditions that start when the turnover order is signed. The restraining order clause might specify that your debtor can't take any actions whose effect is to move, hypothecate, alienate or otherwise hinder any title, right and interest in the internet domain name of example.info, in favor of any other entity or person except for the Sheriff of County, in order to be sold at auction; and it's furthermore adjudged, ordered, and decreed: that any such actions violating this restraining order will be punishable as contempt of this court and its orders, on proof of any occurrence of same by your debtor.

Certain judges don't like to sign orders that include a contempt clause for the case when your debtor does not obey the court's orders, and this does not seem right to me.

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