Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Docketing a foreign judgment

Debtor interrogatories can be conducted in a neighboring county or city, but otherwise the judgment has to be docketed in the other county. You don't need to docket it as a foreign judgment - just record an abstract.

Re: Docketing a foreign judgment

You are saying that you want to bring the Virginia corporation's officers AWAY from their own County to a place inconvenient to them? Or are you saying you want to take the interrogatories of someone who lives or works in another County, in order to be more convenient to the person being deposed?

I don't think that you can force the debtor to travel to an inconvenient County, except where a judgment is entered in County A and the debtor later moves away to County B. You can still ask them to come to the COunty where the judgment was originally entered.

Mr. Press suggests you can make them come to the neighboring County, and that is probably true.

But if, for example, the Corporation is headquartered in Fairfax, but the Treasurer lives in Orange, Virginia, you could -- for the convenience of the witness -- take their answers in Orange, Virginia.

If you are docketing a non-Virginia judgment in Virginia as a foreign judgment, it would have to be in Circuit Court, rather than in the General District Court for amounts under $15,000.

When you fill out the paperwork for debtor's interrogatories from Circuit Court, it will specify the time and place for the debtor's interrogatories, before a commissioner. That would allow you to select a commissioner convenient to the person answering questions. The Court will sign that subpoena as an order, at which time if there is any question about it, it can be explained. The Court would have authority State-wide.

For Circuit Court debtor's interrogatories, it is a pain because you have to line up a "commissioner" and pay them to swear in the witness and sit there and day dream while you ask the questions. But you do get the use of their office, which can be very helpful.

You can ask the Clerk of the Court in that County for a list of who is available.

In General District Court, the DI's are always taken at the courthouse. And everything is done by standardized forms. So if you try to transfer the DI's to another County, neither County's GDC will know what to do with your paperwork, because it would be outside the norm. The GDC runs efficiently and quickly by running on standardized routine.