Judgment Leads in 2012

In a down economic situation, the quality of judgment leads suffer. The lowest rank of lead is a raw judgment lead. Raw leads are those culled from a court house, or any other data source or service; where no effort was made to contact the judgment owner.

Raw judgment leads are often not worth much for many reasons. Judgment leads are worthless when the judgment owner can't be found or if the debtor can't be found, or has died, absconded to another country, went bankrupt, or is poor. If the judgment debtor is poor, or has professionally concealed their available assets, the lead is almost always worthless. Until a debtor's situation is known, the worth of the judgment may be near zero.

If a judgment creditor does not know the reality about judgments, a judgment lead may have no value. Certain judgment owners think judgments are like cash, and won't sell them for any discount, or share something with anyone who recovers a judgment for them. If a creditor overvalues their judgment, it may not ever be collected.

My articles are my opinions and are not, legal advice. I'm a judgment referral expert, and not a lawyer. If you ever want legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact an attorney. Some judgment owners ask over the telephone "How much will you pay me for my judgment?" Many of them have no idea who their judgment debtor is or where they lived before. They want an instant answer, yet that answer could only be found after due diligence is done on their judgment debtor.

Certain judgment owners learn quickly, if shown the reality about their debtor's situation. Other creditors spend a long time contacting a huge number of people and companies before they eventually accepted the reality that their judgment is probably tough to collect. Getting some money back from the judgment is a major win.

The next judgment lead level is a warm lead. This means you have talked to the judgment owner. That solves 2 problems, as the judgment owner is found, and the creditor wants their judgment recovered. The good news is the creditor may know something on their debtor. The bad news is the creditor may be "green", and in a comparison shopping stage, where they begin thinking they will get a better deal by shopping their judgments to, at least twenty recovery options.

What a creditor must learn is, judgment recovery is usually tough, courts are slow, and it is costly and speculative to recover judgments. A typical judgment sells for 2-8 percent cash up front or 50/50 future pay collection, where the judgment owner gets paid after funds are recovered. Be aware that some creditors over-value their judgments wildly, and that alone, may keep them from ever collecting some money. Many creditors will not accept the truth about their judgment, and waste a lot of time and will never get any money from their judgment.

The ideal judgment owner has already attempted to settle with the debtor, and were lied to and not paid. Then they wasted a bunch of money and time trying to collect judgment by itself. This kind of experience in the real world quickly teaches reality. It takes some judgment owners longer to learn and accept the reality about their judgment situation, than it did when winning the judgment.

An ideal level of judgment leads are hot, leads where the judgment owner has provided a complete package. A complete package is a copy of the judgment, the judgment owner's contact information, and info about the debtor. If the package is complete, the only factors remaining are the judgment debtor's circumstance, and the disposition of the judgment owner.

The best lead has a complete package, and the judgment creditor knows the truth about getting a judgment enforced, and they're done shopping. Judgments don't improve with age, rarely in the current economy. It is best to begin early, it's often a lengthy chess game. Smart judgment owners find the best option, and take a first step quickly.

How might you get paid for judgment leads? There are two ways, you can sell non-screened judgment leads, but nobody pays much for raw leads. The better your lead is, the more it is worth; yet the full value of a judgment lead is not known until a judgment is recovered. Judgment brokers pay you half of what they get paid.

The more you research the judgment situation for a lead, the more the lead may be worth. Although a non-screened lead is worth a dollar or so, you could increase its value by contacting the creditor. When you discuss with the judgment creditor, who their judgment debtor is; and be sure that the creditor is aware that judgments do not enforce themselves, and their judgment debtor owns some assets, then you may have a valuable lead.

As our economy has slid, there are fewer recoverable judgments available. Often if a judgment has never been collected, there is a good reason. Reasons include the judgment was already vacated, on appeal, their debtor filed for bankruptcy protection, their judgment debtor is poor; or there are several creditors, and one of them will not agree to sign documents to let their judgment get enforced, etc.

Even with valuable leads, there isn't a liquid market to buy them, except with a judgment broker. Half of valuable leads are worthless because the judgment owners are unwilling to split with anyone that recovers their judgment. My company has talked to judgment owners who told me "I would rather let my judgment expire than share any portion of it to get the judgment collected".

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