Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

You say the court issued a judgment, but lay people often confuse a ruling with the actual judgement. If you have a court document that says "Judgment" and is signed by a judge and stamped "Filed" in the upper right hand corner, then you have an issued judgment. If you only have a ruling by the court awarding you the unpaid rent, then it is up to you to prepare a judgment and submit it to the court for the judge to sign it and then it will be filed. Court judgments are not recorded with the County Recorder, although if the judgment debtor owns, or is suspected or expected to own real property, you can record an Abstract of Judgment which will place a lien on any property the debtor owns or later acquires in any county where you record an abstract.