Judgment Debtor Examination Stipulation Continuations

If a judgment debtor's assets or income sources seem to be concealed or unknown, one tactic used by persistent judgment owners can be a group of debtor exams which include document production requests. After the judgment debtor gets served personally the notice of their court-scheduled debtor examination, three things may happen:

1) The debtor may show up and comply, or at least pretend to cooperate. Nobody makes debtors tell the truth at, or bring correct paperwork to, court exams. Hiring a court reporter to document the answers of a judgment debtor may help them tell the truth, although court reporters are expensive.

2) The debtor might fail to appear at all, which means the judgment creditor might later be permitted to pay for a bench warrant. In certain counties, the Sheriff will pick up debtors for civil bench warrants. In most places, Sheriffs are understaffed, and buying bench warrants is often wasted money for the judgment creditor.

3) Prior to the court date exam, the judgment debtor (or their attorney) might request a stipulation for a continuance; to move the examination to some date in the future. Stipulating to a change of date of an upcoming judgment debtor examination is the focus of this article.

This article is my opinion and is not, legal advice. I am a judgment referral expert, and not an attorney. When you ever want legal advice or a strategy to use, you should retain a lawyer.

A continuance of judgment debtor exams might get requested by either the debtor's lawyer (most often by them filing a unavailability notice) or from the debtor themselves, for any other reason. Stipulating means you agree by your signature with the other party's request. Examination date stipulations update the court's records to schedule the new judgment debtor examination date.

I never saw any case laws that says one need to agree to stipulate to a judgment debtor attorney's notice of unavailability filing, so it is most likely not needed. Yet, it's usually a smart idea to be willing to agree to stipulate with your debtor's lawyer, even when you've got a sneaky or fraudulent judgment debtor.

Agreeing to a stipulation to change the examination date with the judgment debtor's lawyer shows the judge and the court that you are reasonable. It should also allow that court to keep their jurisdiction over the judgment debtor exam, any subpoenaed document productions requests, and any potential debtor exam lien.

Occasionally, the reasons offered by your judgment debtor or the debtor's attorney might seem silly or fabricated; yet most judges are really sympathetic to the schedules of attorneys, and the "needs" of judgment debtors. Because of this, it is often a good idea to agree with a date stipulation, while being careful to make sure you do not lose any rights.

Insuring that the court retains jurisdiction over the debtor is very important, especially if you have already had your document production request subpoena served on them. The goal is to attempt to make sure the exam agreement for a date stipulation preserves the court's jurisdiction, the potential exam lien, and especially specifically identifies or references, any document requests that were previously served.

It is important to maintain the status of any previously subpoenaed served for requested documents. If the court ordered stipulation approves the date change, however does not list your subpoenaed document request; your debtor may be allowed to not bring your requested documents.

When the court's jurisdiction rights to the subpoenaed documents get not preserved, judgment debtor statements such as: "Oops, I just saw this new order and it only said I was not told to bring anything else", "I thought it was not needed anymore", "I thought it got cancelled", or "Oh!, you still wanted those?"; might be all get accepted by the judge. When your subpoena rights are not maintained, judgment debtors do not need to bring in any paperwork.

When you're planning to comply with a judgment debtor exam stipulation to change the date, have your debtor's attorney do most of the work. You may not have to appear in court when you agree to a date change stipulation. All that's required is another court order that continues both the judgment debtor exam date, and lists the identical due date for the previously served requests for subpoenaed documents.

Discuss with the lawyer which court time and dates will work, and the points the stipulation agreement should have, with the debtor's attorney. A good attorney will cooperate with you. Then, ask your debtor's lawyer to write up a stipulation order which moves both the examination and document subpoena request to a future date.

Try to get the judgment debtor's attorney send you their stipulation to sign, for an upcoming ex-parte hearing to get their order. Another option is to ask their attorney to meet you in a court for a joint motion to continue the client's exam and subpoenaed document request; at a mutually agreed date and time, on a scheduled date on a court's exparte calendar.

An important goal should be for the court to retain jurisdiction on your judgment debtor exam and your subpoenaed document requests. When that is not done, that court will not keep their jurisdiction to compel your debtor to appear, bring requested documents, or to potentially sanction the debtor.

If subpoenaed paperwork was already been served and requested, do not agree to meet with the debtor or their attorney away from a court, as the power to compel a subpoena document request is solely at a court.

Anyone requesting a stipulated date continuation should be certain to Learn the local court procedures, and the general practices of their particular judge. How, or if their court will grant your continuance of a debtor exam on a mutual stipulation can vary by court.

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