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JUDGMENT ENFORCEMENT:
HELPFUL RESOURCES
California's Enforcement of Judgments Law (EJL)
California's Enforcement of Judgments Law (California's LegInfo website), (Code of Civil Procedure, Title 9: CCP §§ 680-010-724.260): The complete statutory scheme enacted by the California Legislature governing enforcement of judgments in the State of California.
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Click here for the complete, searchable EJL.
Judgment Enforcement and Debtor/Creditor Treatises & Guides
Rutter Group Practice Guides
Enforcing Judgments and Debts (The Rutter Group California Practice Guide): This is the top secondary source in all of California judgment enforcement.
Civil Trials and Evidence (The Rutter Group California Practice Guide) (Chapters 17-18): Post-trial civil procedure on common proceedings and some judgment enforcement
Bankruptcy (The Rutter Group California Practice Guide): California and 9th Circuit-specific bankruptcy procedural and substantive law; common forms
Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB)
Debt Collection Practice in California: CEB’s principal debt and judgment enforcement treatise
Action Guide, Enforcing Civil Money Judgments
Action Guide, Enforcing Security Interests in Personal Property 2021
Obtaining a Writ of Attachment (Prejudgment)
California Debt Collection and Enforcement of Judgments (Matthew Bender Practice Guide
Enforcement of Judgment 8 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (6th ed. 2021)
California Judges Benchbook: Civil Proceedings—After Trial (2021 ed.)
Judgment Enforcement, Third Edition (Hon. James J. Brown)
California Civil Practice, Procedure, Chapter 30. Enforcement of Judgments, Bancroft Whitney (Justice Eileen C. Moore, Michael Paul Thomas)
Enforcing Judgments: Overview (CA) (Thomson Reuters Practical Law Litigation)
Strategies for Creditors in Bankruptcy Proceedings Seventh Edition (Lynn M. LoPucki, Christopher R. Mirick, Christopher G. Bradley)
How To Collect When You Win a Lawsuit in California, 2017 Edition (Andres Schonviesner, Paul Young, Joseph Chora)
The Charging Orders Practice Guide: Understanding Judgment Creditor Rights Against LLC Members (Jay D. Adkisson)
The Debt Collector’s Handbook: Collecting Debts, Finding Assets, Enforcing Judgments, and Beating Your Creditors (David J. Cook)
Judicial Branch & Other Governmental Resources
California Judicial Council
All California Judicial Council Forms, Category: Enforcement of Judgment
Enforcement/Judgment Collection: (links)
Collect Your Family Law Money Judgment
How to Collect Your Judgment: 48-page PDF Guide, William T. Tanner
Sacramento County Public Law Library
Enforcement of Judgments: five-video series on basic judgment enforcement procedures
Basic Instructions to “Pro Pers” (i.e., unrepresented parties) regarding Enforcement of Judgments: PDF document outlining basic judgment enforcement procedures
CACI Civil Jury Instructions: California’s Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (UVTA) (Series 4200)
A handy judgment dollar-amount calculator: calculates both post-judgment interest as of any given date, and also accurately accounts for individual costs or partial payments on the judgment
How Can the Judgment Creditor Collect on the Judgment Including Additional Costs Incurred After Judgment?: Los Angeles County Superior Court
Asset Protection Devices & Schemes: From Flagrantly Illegal to Perfectly Legal and Everything in Between
Concealment of Beneficial Ownership, July 2018 (Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units): PDF document
Asset Protection: Concepts and Strategies for Protecting Your Wealth (Jay D. Adkisson, Christopher M. Riser)
Asset Protection Strategies for Organizations and Individuals, 2008, (Kenneth J. Laino): PDF document
Taken Captive: The Secret to Capturing Your Piece of America’s Multi-Billion Dollar Insurance Industry (R. Wesley Sierk, III)
Adkisson's Captive Insurance Companies: An Introduction to Captives, Closely-Held Insurance Companies, and Risk Retention Groups (Jay D. Adkisson)
Private Judgment Buyers & Enforcement Professionals
California Association of Judgment Professionals, Membership Directory: A website for the nonprofit organization whose members are dedicated to the enforcement of judgments across the State of California.
Chora | Young LLP - A Judgment Enforcement Law Firm (Paul Young, Joseph Chora)
Law Offices of Greg Groeneveld
Gretchen D. Lichtenberger: The best process server and an excellent judgment enforcer/enforcement paralegal
Half Dome Capital Judgment Collection: Cash Buyer & Enforcer of Judgments (especially judgments secured against California real property)
Evanns Collection Law Firm (Richard Evanns)
Final Verdict Solutions (Jamie Shelton)
JudgmentBuy.com: A cash buyer of judgments with an excellent website featuring an immense collection of plain-English information, tips, and tricks on enforcing judgments in California and all other 50 states.
Jay D. Adkisson
Jay Adkisson is an attorney and prolific writer of articles and commentary on most of the common advanced tactics debtors use to thwart creditors (often illegally or improperly). He is a Managing Partner of Adkisson Pitet LLP who practices primarily in the area of creditor-debtor litigation, but also from time-to-time in the areas asset protection and wealth preservation, captive insurance companies and insurance/reinsurance litigation, and Anti-SLAPP litigation. He is also a columnist for Forbes.com, an author of several books, and a popular legal and financial speaker on a variety of topics. He has twice been an expert witness to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, and his lectures have included to the U.S. Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service on judgment enforcement issues.
Jay’s central website (jayadkisson.com) providing links to statutory creditor rights authorities, his recent debtor/creditor articles, publications, and more:
Jay’s primer on enforcement of civil money judgments: (creditordebtor.com)
Jay’s articles and links to authorities on charging orders, a popular remedy against debtors who own interests in LLCs: (chargingorder.com)
Jay’s articles and links to authorities on Voidable Transactions (formerly known as “Fraudulent Transfers”): (voidabletransactions.com)
Investigation, Open-Source Databases, & Fact-Gathering
Awesome OSINT: A curated list of amazingly awesome open source intelligence tools and resources. Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is intelligence collected from publicly available sources. In the intelligence community (IC), the term "open" refers to overt, publicly available sources (as opposed to covert or clandestine sources)
Bellingcat’s free open source investigation toolkit: Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists founded in 2014 and brought together by a passion for open source research
OSINT Framework: A great resource for open-source intelligence gathering. It has everything from data sources to helpful links to effective tools, making it much easier than trying to individually research every program and tool out there
Melissa Lookups: A free & low-cost people/property search database, returning thorough and accurate data results
UniCourt, a great website with excellent search function across most states and counties for identifying past or present litigated matters involving your debtors or other third parties
bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov: California Secretary of State Business Entity Search
CorporationWiki: Nationwide corporate entity investigation database—Investigate Links Between People/Companies That Owe You Money
Paid, access-restricted data broker databases
Accurint (a LexisNexis company)
Debtor-Focused Defensive Tactics & Resources
- These are examples of the kinds of resources your judgment debtor is looking at to defeat your judgment enforcement efforts -
How to Avoid Paying a Judgment: YouTube video, assetprotectionplanners.com
3 IMPORTANT Ways To Keep Your Assets Hidden From Creditors And Lawyers: YouTube video
Beat Your Debt Collector in Court Using Requests for Production of Documents: YouTube video
How to Avoid Paying a Civil Judgement on Your Credit Report in California
Tax Crisis Institute: How to Get Rid of Court-Ordered Debt in California
Judgment Contests, Settlement, & Lien Removal Attorneys in Santa Ana: (DebtorProtectors.com, Fitzgerald & Campbell, APC)
How to Remove a Judgment Lien: SFGate Article
What happens if you can't pay: California Judicial Council resource for debtors
How to Make a Judgment Disappear (Poof): (ConsumerHelpCentral.com)
Financial Freedom & Debt Resolution Blog: (socaladvocates.com)
When Your Bank Account Is Seized: California Action Plan: (bankruptcysoapbox.com)
Recent & Pending California Legislation re: Judgment Enforcement
This bill, passed in October 2023, addresses various aspects of the enforcement of judgments. It includes provisions allowing judgment creditors to apply for court orders requiring judgment debtors or those in possession of the debtor’s property to provide information that aids in the enforcement of money judgments. This legislation is part of ongoing efforts to streamline and improve the judgment enforcement process.
Existing law permits a judgment creditor to apply to the court for an order requiring the judgment debtor, or another person who is in possession and control of property of the judgment debtor, to appear before the court to provide information to aid in the enforcement of a money judgment, as specified. Existing law requires the judgment creditor to personally serve a copy of that order on the judgment debtor not less than 10 days before the date set for the examination. Existing law permits the court to issue a warrant for the arrest of, a warrant to compel the attendance of, and may hold in contempt, a judgment debtor who fails to appear in response to such an order. This bill would extend the notice of the examination required to be given to the judgment debtor to not less than 30 days before the examination. The bill would authorize a judgment debtor in a case involving consumer debt, as defined, to serve a financial affidavit signed under penalty of perjury, as specified, and file with the court a notice of financial affidavit and proof of service in lieu of appearing for the examination. If the judgment debtor files the notice and proof of service, the bill would require the court to cancel the financial examination unless the judgment creditor files, under oath, as specified, a notice of motion for an order determining the need for the debtor to appear for a debtor’s examination. If the judgment creditor files such a notice of motion in a timely manner, the bill would require the court to decide, either on the pleadings or through a hearing, whether the judgment debtor must appear for a debtor’s examination, as provided. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would also prohibit a court from issuing a warrant for the arrest of a judgment debtor in a case concerning consumer debt based on the judgment debtor’s failure to appear or failure to file a judgment debtor’s financial affidavit. In these circumstances, the bill would authorize the court to issue an order to show cause to determine whether a warrant to compel the judgment debtor’s attendance should be issued, which the judgment debtor could satisfy by filing a judgment debtor’s financial affidavit described above. The bill would require the Judicial Council to create and update its forms to reflect these changes. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law identifies various types of property of a judgment debtor that are exempt from the enforcement of a money judgment, including material that in good faith is about to be applied to the repair or improvement of a residence, as specified. This bill would clarify that this exemption would apply to the judgment debtor’s principal place of residence or domicile.
Existing law provides that property that has been levied upon in a civil action may be claimed as exempt by a judgment debtor who files a claim of exemption with the levying officer. Existing law requires a judgment creditor who opposes a claim of exemption to file with the court a notice of opposition to the claim of exemption and a notice of motion for an order determining the claim of exemption. Existing law provides that filing an exemption and notice of opposition of a claim to exemption constitute pleadings. Existing law provides that a defendant makes an appearance in a civil action when the defendant files certain pleadings or motions, such as an answer to a complaint. This bill would instead provide that a claim of exemption and notice of opposition to a claim of exemption do not constitute an appearance, and would limit the court’s power over the claimant to deciding the claim of exemption.
AB 2837
Existing law defines what types of property are subject to and exempt from the enforcement of money judgments, as specified, including certain retirement plans. Existing law also requires judgment creditors seeking to enforce money judgments to provide notice to judgment debtors, as specified. Existing law provides rules for claiming exemptions from the enforcement of money judgments and provides requirements for the adjudication of such exemptions. Existing law defines “personal debt” for the purposes of renewing the period of enforceability of a judgment to mean money due or owing or alleged to be due or owing from a natural person arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance, or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for the debtor’s personal, family, or household purposes. This bill would expand the types of retirement plans exempt from money judgments, as specified, and exempt such property to the extent necessary to provide specified support for, and satisfy tax obligations of, the judgment debtor. The bill would revise the enforcement provisions described above by requiring a judgment creditor to take additional steps to verify a judgment debtor’s address and provide notice of enforcement to a judgment debtor, by requiring a court to order the return of exempt property that has been levied upon, and limiting the time period during which an earnings withholding order may be enforced and the frequency with which such an order may be sought. The bill would require a financial institution to protect from levy cumulatively exempt funds belonging to the debtor and held in multiple accounts. The bill would generally apply these revised enforcement provisions to cases in which the judgment creditor seeks to enforce judgment based on recovery of personal debt described above.