Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Can you record more than one lien from the same judgment. The parties have several real estate properties both commercial and residential
2 Answers from Attorneys
I'm not sure of the specifics of your question. When a party obtains a judgment, they record an abstract of judgment with the county recorder. That perfects a lien on all property that the judgment debtor owns or acquires in that county. You have to record an abstract of judgment in each county where the debtor owns property, recording in one county is not notice to third parties in other counties. In that situation you would have multiple abstract of judgment liens.
Additionally, if you pursue other collection efforts and file a memorandum of costs after judgment, the judgment can increase to include the amounts expended in attempting to collect the judgment. In this situation, new abstracts can be recorded, and theoretically you again have multiple liens, but it really is one lien with an increase for costs.
To unjumble Mr. Roach's answer, there is no need to record a separate lien for each property, only for each county in which there is property, and amended liens if the amount needed to satisfy the judgment increases due to subsequent costs awards.