Page 79 - Judgment Enforcement Course

Judgment Enforcement – The Step-by-Step Course

Step 2

30 Minutes
FINDING THE BETTER DEBTOR

There’s only one way to say this: This section is HUGE. Judgments aren’t equal. Some
are huge waste of time and money. Some are terrific. You want the “better debtor.”

Example

I get most of my cases from phone calls to me these days. One fellow called me the
other day and said he had a large judgment, $100,000. He told me, “And the guy’s
living in a million-dollar home!”

I’ve learned not to get too excited about large judgments. But I asked the fellow for the
JD’s name and his address. I then went right to my database (Lexis). Here’s what I found
(Tell me if you see a problem):

• The judgment debtor (the JD) was indeed living in a million-dollar home!
• But, the JD owed a million dollars on it.
• I ran Zillow.com, then, for an approximation of its real value: $3,000,000,000!
Wow, $2,000,000,000 in equity!

• Then, I went further in my Lexis database, and found that he owed
$6,000,000 in tax liens.
Did I take the judgment? Nope. Why not? He’s 6 freakin’ million dollars in debt!

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