We are a civil litigation law firm. Most of the cases we handle arise from claims for bodily injury caused by negligence, but all of our cases involve some kind of a dispute –sometimes over a business relationship or transaction, a piece of property, or some other kind of tort, or private harm – that for one reason or another the parties are not able to resolve on their own. While the parties, if they are able to compromise, have almost infinite flexibility in the solutions they can come up with, in most cases the only tool the court has to solve the problem is to order one party to pay money to the other.
Well, imagine you have gone all the way through a lawsuit and come out the other side with such an order, called a money judgment. What do you do then?
As I frequently hear judges remind the courtroom at the beginning of a calendar call, the court doesn’t have a pile of money from which to pay successful litigants. Instead, the winners of those judgments have to walk the last mile on their own and collect on those judgments. Here are some of the tools available.
1. Usually the first step in collecting on a judgment is to obtain what is called a writ of fieri facias, commonly called a fi-fa (FIE-FAY). This instrument, known as a writof execution in some jurisdictions, is an order from the court allowing the debtor’sproperty to be seized for satisfaction of your judgment.
2. Once you have that writ, you can file a copy of it in the land records of any county where you believe the debtor owns real estate. Although this step does not by itself collect any money for you, it creates a lien on any property the debtor owns in that county. Your lien will prevent the debtor from selling or refinancing the property without paying off your lien.
3. The fi-fa, whose full Latin name means “cause it to be done,” also authorizes the sheriff to put the judgment into effect by taking the debtor’s personal property and selling it at auction to pay the judgment.
4. The last common tool used to collect on a judgment is the garnishment. A garnishment is a separate legal action, technically brought not against the debtor but against somebody who owes the debtor money, requiring the entity holding the money to pay it to the creditor. Typically, they are filed against the debtor’s employer (a continuing or “wage” garnishment) or bank (a “regular” garnishment).
WARNING: In a case out of Gwinnett County, a Federal court recently found Georgia’s garnishment statute to be unconstitutional. While that ruling does not appear to apply towage garnishments, and does not necessarily invalidate all regular garnishments, it is a good reason for caution. The state legislature is scrambling to fix the problem, but for the time being you should make sure to seek out competent legal advice before pursuing a garnishment.
That last mile can be a tough one. I know we get great satisfaction from turning our clients’ judgments into actual money in hand. Good luck, and let us know if we can help.
