Legal Question in Construction Law in California

Re: Claiming a judgement against a corporation

First, with respect to the 30-day limit you mention. The Code of Civil Procedure (section 116.610(a)) instructs judges to make the judgment payable "as the court deems just and equitable for the resolution of the dispute." Apparently the 30-day period was what your judge thought was a reasonable length of time for that defendant to cough up the $5,000. The 30 days is not cast in stone. See also CCP section 116.620(a) requiring the judgment debtor to pay "either immediately or at the time and upon the terms.....which the court may order."

Further, your right to collect is not limited to 30 days. Your judgment is good for 10 years from the date it was entered, and can be renewed for additional periods.

The fact that the judgment debtor is a corporation and has been sued many times may or may not be relevant. Generally, I would think, a corporation that has been sued many times (and presumably has lost a proportion of those suits!) and has survived also has learned the importance of satisfying those judgments. A corporation that repeatedly fails to address judgments against it will be picked apart by liens and levies. The real question may be whether this is a larger corporation (50+ employees) being run professionally, or just a little family business that incorporated to protect itself from creditors. My hunch is the smaller the corporation the less responsible it is likely to be in the matter of paying a $5,000 judgment.

If in fact you run into difficulty collecting, I suggest buying a self-help legal book (or borrow one from your library) on "small claims court" or "how to collect your judgment." There are several and they are pretty good.