Potentially, a judgment can effectively become permanent; many states allow creditors to renew their judgments. So, if a creditor gets a court order or files an affidavit or other document, it can renew the judgment for another cycle.
In some states, creditors are allowed to renew a judgment once or twice. In others, there's no limit. If a judgment creditor doesn't renew a judgment on time, then that judgment lapses.
A judgment may also lapse if the creditor doesn't do anything to execute on that judgment for a certain period of time. When a judgment lapses or becomes "dormant" , the creditor can no longer legally enforce it.
So, a creditor can't:. If a judgment against you has lapsed, it probably hasn't gone away forever. Many states allow creditors to "revive" dormant judgments, perhaps subject to a time limit.
State laws vary on how the time period is calculated. The clock may begin to run from the time the creditor last tried to collect on the judgment, or it might run from the time the judgment later went dormant.
However, a debt collector can't threaten to garnish your wages or take other legal action to pressure you into settling that old judgment. If a debt collector lies to you about the age of the judgment and whether it lapsed under your state's laws, that also might be a violation of the FDCPA. It can show up even longer, depending on how much time your state's laws give effect to that judgment.
The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site. The same applies to you if you don't respond in time to your lawsuit summons and complaint. Of course, this kind of forfeiture can lead to a writ of execution resulting in wage garnishment, so the stakes are much higher for you. You respond to a lawsuit by filing a legal pleading called an "answer.
Some defenses are substantive. If the debt collector filed the lawsuit after the statute of limitations expired, now is your time to tell the court. Upsolve Community Member I can ' t complete my interview as I am incurring new me dical Saying that, I've read that it's moot to pay credit card bills if I tend to file for bankruptcy The first thing to try after a judgment has been entered is to see if the judgment creditor is willing to let you do a voluntary payment plan to pay off the judgment.
Keep in mind that a judgment gives the debt collector additional tools to collect money from you. Since these tools come with a court order, some judgment creditors are hesitant to agree to a voluntary payment arrangement.
After all, they just paid a bunch of attorney fees to sue you and get access to these additional tools. Once a creditor has a judgment , there are three primary ways to try to collect the judgment amount. Judgment creditors can use wage garnishment to receive a portion of your earnings each paycheck. Exemptions limit the amount the creditor can take. Some states like Florida , Idaho , Oklahoma , Maryland , Ohio , and Utah follow federal wage garnishment limits to determine what is considered exempt income.
Other states offer similar exemptions to judgment debtors but add more protections. There is no federal limit as to how much they can levy; state law determines how much a creditor can take with a bank levy. A judgment creditor may also put a lien on all your property, both personal and real. If you own your own home, that is an example of "real property. If you try to sell the property, you may have to pay off the judgment lien before receiving any of the sale proceeds. The homestead exemption in your state impacts just what this would look like for you.
Even though the creditor can't collect their money from you, they can still try to demand payment, which can be irritating to deal with regularly. The ultimate defense to post-judgment collections is bankruptcy.
As soon as you file for bankruptcy protection, the automatic stay goes into effect. How could we make it more helpful? Leave this field blank. Find Legal Aid You may be able to get free legal help from your local legal aid program. More resources. View the results at Google , or enable JavaScript to view them here. Which debts do I pay first?
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