Document Requests
I'm not an attorney, I am the nation's only judgment referral expert. This article is my opinion, and is not legal advice, based on my experience in California. If you ever need a strategy to use or legal advice, please contact an attorney.
It is important for a judgment creditor to learn whether the debtor has some assets to repay a judgment. Your judgment debtor will likely try to hide the truth concerning what assets they have and their ability to repay the money judgment.
A request for a Production of Documents and Things (PDT) sometimes is a very helpful judgment recovery procedure. This kind of request is sometimes referred to as a Subpoena Duces Tecum (SDT). In this article, an abbreviation PDT-SDT is used for this discovery procedure.
The reason to use a PDT-SDT is to try and more thoroughly locate and analyze the debtor's assets. The things that the creditor instructs the judgment debtor to bring is what are most probable to shed light on the judgment debtor's assets.
By serving a PDT-SDT, your debtor may be court ordered to bring paperwork or other tangible things, to be examined by the creditor at the court at a specific date and time. Your debtor is served with a summons from a court, to produce their evidence as specified. When they don't comply, they might be penalized by the court.
Every PDT-SDT needs to be prepared by the creditor or their attorney, and scheduled, approved, and stamped by the court. PDT-SDTs must comply with the court's rules, and be properly and personally served on the debtor (or in some cases, a 3rd party). If a judgment debtor fails to answer questions or bring items, the creditor needs to bring that to the judge's attention.
In many courts, the demand list for items to be produced and questions, aren't endorsed by the court, and do not get added to the court's storage system.
Some PDT-SDT items a judgment creditor may request that the debtor produce, may include: recent tax returns, investment statements, current financial statements, bank statements, credit applications, notes receivable title documents, records of all business and personal property, personal and business credit card statements, and insurance policies.
Depending on what state and what court, the judgment debtor might think about about risking getting charged with contempt, for failure to comply correctly to your PDT-SDT.
If the judgment debtor is not forthcoming in producing your requested information, documents, or things; then more info can be found by serving PDT-SDTs onto 3rd parties who possess or know about any judgment debtor assets. The third parties may be accounts, spouses, and lawyers; perhaps even when they try to assert a claim of privilege.
PDT-SDTs are not trivial, needs a lot of paperwork, and requires several copies to be made. You must pay the process server and the court for every served party. One should retain a lawyer, or if enforcing the judgment which they own, get very familiar with the procedures and rules which apply at the court. Knowing all the ways to discover and levy the debtor's assets, is very important for a successful judgment recovery.
About the Author
http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - Judgment Enforcement. The free, easiest, fastest, and best way for the best chance to get money for your judgment. Mark Shapiro, the free judgment matchmaker. We have the best quality free judgment referral leads for enforcers, judgment buyers, collection agencies and contingency collection attorneys.
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