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Judgment Enforcement – The Step-by-Step Course
If you know that the debtor has a car, you want to subpoena the registration, insurance
policy, loan application, and so on. Your next step will be to subpoena the loan company
for the loan application.
Loan applications are a great source of information. Loan applications are a great
On loan applications people are very generous about resource. People are very
revealing their assets because they want the lender to generous about revealing their
lend them the money. They want to prove they are assets when they want to
borrow money.
credible borrowers. You’ll likely find the debtor’s bank
accounts, job information, and yearly income. These can
be handy in the event the debtor files a claim of exemption later. (More on that in another
section.)
At the JDX, if you think the debtor is lying, ask him to write down what he says and sign
it under penalty of perjury. He doesn’t have to, but he doesn’t necessarily know this. If he
will do it, you can use it against him later when you uncover the truth.
But what if I subpoena documents from the debtor, but he doesn’t bring them?
Simply tell the judge that the de
If the debtor hasn’t complied with the Subpoena Duces Tecum, that is reason enough for
him to be held in contempt of court. The judge will be miffed, but probably won’t do much
except tell the debtor to bring the required papers the following week; and warn him that if
he doesn’t he will be held in contempt.
But what if the debtor doesn’t show?
My experience is that on smaller judgments, small claims for example, the JD doesn’t
show about 30% of the time, especially when it’s not a better debtor. (Which you don’t
want anyway.) But this only works in your favor. It’s not against the law to owe money.
But it is against the law to disobey a court order to appear at a JDX.
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