Judgments And California Sheriffs

I am not an attorney, I am a Judgment and Collection Agency Broker. This article is my opinion, based on my experience in California, and laws vary in every state. If you need legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact a lawyer. An important foundation of civil law is jurisdiction. Usually, a judgment needs to be domesticated to the state and county, near the judgment debtor. When a bank does business in more than one state, sometimes one can have the sheriff garnish a branch in the judgment creditor's state, and levy/garnish far-away judgment debtor bank funds using long-arm statues.

NY has made progress with this. If a debtor has an account at any bank, and that bank maintains a branch in New York, one can levy on the account in New York, regardless of where their account was opened. One domesticates the judgment in NY, and garnishes the New York bank account.

However, in NY, there is the hassle of a new trial required to domesticate a default judgment there. Also, in NY, most often the first $1,716 to $2,500 in the judgment debtor's bank account is exempt from garnishment.

All levies are accomplished with marshals or sheriffs, in the county where the assets of a judgment debtor is located. In California, there is a wide difference in the policies and performance of the County Sheriffs, in each of the fifty-eight counties.

Each Sheriff in California has their own policy on the ways levies may be served. Always verify sheriff policies before you pay a sheriff to garnish a bank account. Most often, on a California levy, the bank sends a memorandum of garnishee to the sheriff. However, if the levy is satisfied in full, the bank is not required to return the memorandum of garnishee to the sheriff.

It is a great advantage, when one can choose which county the bank garnishment will be performed at. Each civil sheriff office is different, all require payment. Some will serve garnishments themselves, others require you to hire a registered process server. Some civil sheriffs are quick, others are slow. All Civil Sheriff Departments In California are professional and do the best job they can.

When it comes to processing, or serving, garnishment paperwork; most California Civil Sheriffs are average. Some are slower or faster than average, and below is a list of what I have learned about non-average California County Civil Sheriff departments in recent years:

Los Angeles County - the main downtown Los Angeles civil sheriff is very slow. Use a registered process server to do garnishments. The sheriffs of Santa Monica, Indio, Chatsworth, Van Nuys, Riverside, Burbank, and Lancaster, are all very slow.

Los Angeles County - The sheriffs of Chula Vista, West Covina, Torrance, Pasadena, El Monte, and Inglewood, are all fast. The Malibu Sheriff is quick, however they are hard to locate with a web search: Malibu Civil Sheriff, 1725 Main Street, Santa Monica, 90401 (310) 553-5033.

Orange County - the sheriff redacts social security numbers on garnishment instructions to banks. Use a process server, or ask the bank to phone you for the debtor SS number. Orange county has a centralized location for issuing abstracts of judgments and writs, no matter which Orange County court generated the judgment.

Sacramento County - has a very efficient and quick Civil Sheriff department.

San Francisco County - very quick.

Santa Clara County - fairly quick, however it sometimes takes them years to return an unsuccessful garnishment report.

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