Foolish Judgment Decisions

I am not a lawyer, I am a judgment matchmaking expert (Judgment Broker). Nothing in any of my articles can ever be considered legal advice. This article is my opinion about foolish beliefs that prevent judgments from being enforced.

The normal reasons why judgments are not recovered are serious enough. (The biggest reason is because many judgment debtors are poor.) This article is about the shenanigans and illogical thinking that can make things worse, and stop judgments from being enforced.

First, the ways Original Judgment Creditors (OJCs) (the judgment owners) reduce their chances of ever getting money from their judgments:

1) "My judgment is worth its face value and all accrued interest." That belief is based in theory, not reality. A more realistic answer is a judgment is worth whatever a buyer will actually pay you. The average payment is about three percent of the face value, or 50% of whatever is collected in the future. (Or it is worth what available assets the judgment debtor possesses, that you can locate, and pay someone to collect, or pay the sheriff to recover.) And, if the debtor filed for bankruptcy protection, most judgments are worth zero.

2) "The judgment debtor must to pay me." Nope. There is no law and no incentive for a judgment debtor to pay a judgment - unless the judgment debtor has assets - and one spends time and money to collect those assets - and even then, nothing is guaranteed. Long ago, when property was getting refinanced every year and prices for homes kept increasing, and almost everyone was employed and wanted to buy goodies on credit, recording liens was an easy way to get your judgment paid. Those days are almost gone, or at least are much rarer now.

3) "I have a $(795|895) judgment and I do not want to pay 50% on a future-payment basis to have it collected, I want to pay thirty percent at most." That does not compute, as it takes a lot of money to recover a judgment. Nobody will ever recover a small judgment for thirty percent, as it is not worth their time to recover a judgment with so little profit. (Judgment Enforcers are in the business to earn money, and there is no room for personal feelings in judgment recovery.)

4) "My judgment debtor can't file for bankruptcy." The truth is they can. If your judgment is specifically for fraud, and you or your attorney show up in court on the date of the hearing, and bring that fraud to the court's attention - and work to make your judgment debt declared non-dischargeable, there is a good chance you will be able to pay more to get your judgment collected. If your judgment is not for fraud, it will probably be lost.

None of the beliefs above help a judgment to be recovered.

Next, let's cover the ways Judgment Enforcers impair their chances of ever recovering money from most of the judgments they are working on.

1) "I take every judgment that comes in, one of them may pay off." The truth is, you do not have any reason to take a judgment you can't recover money on, unless you buy the judgment outright, or fully inform the OJC that your plan is to hold onto the judgment for a long time without taking actions other than recording liens.

2) "I enforce judgments everywhere." The truth is unless you hire lawyers close to the judgment debtors, when the debtors are far away - you should only take judgments local to you, and refer any that are further away than you want to drive to.

3) "I reject almost all of the judgments that come to me, and I just say no thanks." When you reject a judgment, always take the time to explain why to the OJC. If you don not, the OJC will just keep contacting Judgment Enforcers or a Judgment Broker, over and over, until they consistently hear the same valid reason, for instance "your debtors are poor". Only telling the truth consistently, can educate an OJC with a difficult judgment.

When original judgment owners (OJCs) believe their judgments are worth their face value or more, and Judgment Enforcers (JEs) do not consistently explain reality to the OJCs, it creates a loop where OJCs may contact hundreds of JEs, wasting lots of time and further reducing the chances the judgment will ever be even partially recovered.

Some OJC contacted me two years ago, and I then told the OJC the truth - their 67-year old judgment debtor is poor. Then, over the next 2 years, I get the same judgment lead from about 100 JEs, on the same OJC.

The examples vary, one example is an OJC with a million dollar judgment, with a judgment debtor who is 67 and poor. The OJC strongly believes their judgment is worth more than one million dollars, and for two years, they bent countless ears, wanting $500K upfront for their judgment the first year, $450K the next year, and just contacted recently, wanting 400K for their judgment.

For two years, some OJC did not face reality, and keep shopping their judgment, falsely believing shopping was the solution. The reality that I told them two years ago, is still true. A judgment's worth depends on the debtor, not the needs, hopes, or wishes of anyone.

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