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Judgment Enforcement – The Step-by-Step Course
example, a $60K judgment and a JD who sold his home last year, and sold his business,
and now says, “Sorry, Mr. JE. I don’t have anything,” the a JDX could be the way to go.
Example: I had a JD some time ago who slammed his car into another car, pushing it up
an embankment and crippling the other driver for life. He was driving a new Lexus with no
insurance. And he drove off after the accident. Nice guy, huh? The judgment was for about
1
$350K. I brought the JD in on a JDX, and even brought his father in because his father
had knowledge about his assets. The JD had a company in his name, and a patent. I
subpoenaed banking records, taxes (not really allowed, though, in some states), real estate
transfers and more. I used the JDX to follow the money.
A Peter Story: The strategies I use to collect on a judgment are
psychological as well as legal. When I was starting out, I had a JDX where I
thought I was getting nowhere. The debtor was the owner of a number of
palm reading businesses, and claimed that he couldn’t produce hardly any
of the documents that I had subpoenaed. Oh yes, he brought
his attorney too, and the attorney went about dutifully
objecting to my questions whenever he had a chance. As
usual, I was polite Peter. I just asked the questions patiently
and wrote down the answers. (This time I had not requested
a court reporter.)
About 35 minutes into the JDX I realized that both the attorney and the
debtor were fidgeting. They needed a smoke! So I decided to drag out the
JDX as long as possible, and see what would happen. I slowed down my
speech. I paused and deliberated thoughtfully on each answer, nodded
slowly, and asked as many follow up questions as I could think of. The
attorney got annoyed. Too bad. Soon they were both squirming. Then I
excused myself and went to the rest room, but told them it really wouldn’t
be appropriate for them go outside for a break.
When I thought they were ready to burst, I suggested that the debtor make
a good faith payment of $300 toward the judgment. He said okay! Then he
actually produced a checkbook he hadn’t declared in the JDX! He wrote
me a check. I took it to get the money (hoping it wouldn’t bounce). But
coincidentally, it gave me the banking information I hadn’t had before.
1 Again, don’t fall in love with large judgments. They are only as good as the JD’s assets.
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