Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Civil Judgement collection on Contingency
My mother-in-law recently was awarded a judgement against her own daughter whom had stolen money from her. Fraudulently, she convinced her to sign over bank accts (@$188,000) into her name and had a house put in her son's name (would be a grandson). The judge has awarded the houses and money back to my mother-in-law. However, they have NO more money to pay to find the money the court awarded. It's very frustrating that all that time and money was spent with atty's and the court to end up with a ''piece of paper''. Is there any attorneys that would take this to the next step on a contingency basis? Get a % of the money they can find/collect from the defendent? My in-laws need help but don't have the means now to do it. No criminal charges have been filed yet. My mother-in-law is in poor health after all this...her own daughter stealing money from her...sad! So, if there are attorney's that would do this please let me know via my e-mail. The fraud took place in MADERA, CALIFORNIA.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Civil Judgement collection on Contingency
Location of the fraud is not relevant; location of judgment debtor's assets is highly relevant.
Also highly relevant is whether the court made a finding of fact in the judgment that the judgment is for fraud. This will likely insultate the judgment from discharge in a bankruptcy.
There are many collection attorneys who do post judgment enforcement on a contingency. This firm is one of them. But first and foremost, assets and sources of repayment must be identified.
The most typical arrangement with a client/creditor and his/her attorney is that the client/creditor is responsible for the costs of enforcement, and the attorney's fee is a contingency based upon gross collections.
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