Collecting a Judgment in Florida

Civil LitigationYour divorce is finalized and your former spouse is ordered to pay you money.  What do you do when you are unable to collect your money within the time frame ordered by the Court?  Or you have a judgment against someone and you want to collect on it because the person/company is refusing to pay you anything.  What happens now?  A couple preliminary steps that you do not need an attorney to do are listed below:

1.         Re-record your judgment in public records of the county that entered the judgment.

2.         Obtain a Judgment Lien Certificate from the Division of Corporations.

3.         Record a certified copy of the judgment in every County the judgment debtor owns property (whether it is a homestead property, time share, or vacation home).

Once the above steps have been perfected, you will want to contact a Tampa attorney that can provide you with knowledgeable information and help you determine your next steps.  Your attorney can proceed with the process in collecting your judgment in several different ways, depending on whether the judgment is against an individual or a corporation.  One way is to garnish a bank account or the judgment debtor’s wages.  Another is to levy upon personal possessions (i.e. vehicles, boats, planes) and property of the corporation (equipment, vehicles, or furniture).  Sometimes the judgment debtor will agree to a payment schedule and additional litigation is not necessary. To help you determine whether your judgment is collectible, contact the Anton Legal Group at 813-443-5249.   David Anton is a third generation attorney in the Tampa Bay area with his office located in Historical Ybor City.