Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in South Carolina

Re: Credit Card Debt

Hi - please feel free to call me - my information should appear at the bottom of this response.

If a person has no money, and no *nonexempt* property (property that isn't protected from the reach of creditors on the basis of certain statutes) and no interest in property coming to her (i.e., trust income, etc.), then she's considered "judgment proof." What that means is that, although a creditor can sue her, get a judgment (default or otherwise), and have that judgment reduced to a court order, there's nothing to execute against - no property that the sheriff can sell and give the proceeds to the creditor (up to the amount of the judgment plus interest, the remainder going to other lienholders in order of priority then to the property owner/debtor).

So, bottom line: a debtor who has no nonexempt property - a debtor who has no property at all, or whose property falls under the dollar value limits provided in the SC exemption statute, section 15-41-30, then she's judgment proof, and because there's nothing to sell for the benefit of the creditor, she has nothing to lose. It will, however, remain on credit reports, and if any nonexempt property is later acquired within a certain period of years after the judgment, that property can be subject to the judgment.