Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Re: collecting judgement on warrant in debt

This is one of the reasons why debt-collection attorneys usually get 1/3rd of the amount owed for collecting on debts (sometimes 40% or more). It is not just a question of getting a judgment. Now you also have to go out and find the money. A judgment is a "hunting license" to go collect the money, but it does not automatically do anything. (Well, there is one exception. If someone owns real estate and sells it or refinances, the lender (or new lender of the buyer) will require that the judgment be paid off before the house is refinanced. So the only time that money will suddenly appear is if the debtor sells or refinances their house (or any real estate, actually).

If this was in General District Court, the judgment is good for 10 years. Even if the debtor is broke today they may have a lot of money sometime in the future. If you docket it in Circuit Court, you can extend the life to 20 years.

If this was in General District Court, in order to get the benefit of creating a "lien" on real estate you should RECORD the judgment in the land records of the County where the debtor lives or where you think the debtor has real estate. You can record it in as many Counties as you want, if the debtor keeps moving, for example. To do this, you request an abstract of judgment from the Clerk. Then you walk it over to the Circuit Court/Land Records division and ask to record it. It will cost you something like $20.

Now, that's the easy way. The hard way provides you with a lot of tools. But they are far from easy for a non-lawyer to use. The simplest is "debtor's interrogatories" which allows you to demand that the debtor come in and answer questions about what they own and how they can pay. Based on that information, you can then GARNISH the debtor's wages or their bank account. However, filling out these forms and handling this is rather difficult. It must be done just right, with multiple copies of this and that and required notices, etc., etc. If the person has a joint bank account with someone else, you have to hold a special hearing.

The other thing that debt-collection attorneys normally do is conduct a private investigator type investigation of the debtor in order to find where they NOW live, where they bank, where they work, etc., etc. So collecting on a judgment usually has a large "private investigator" component to it. Most debt collection law firms have an investigator-type of person on staff for this purpose.

Also, you should act fast. If the debtor moves out of Virginia, it will be more difficult to collect. Not impossible. But more difficult.

I do know a company that will help with these kinds of situations called CASE CLOSED RECOVERY, Inc. They are a debt collection agency that specializes in existing court judgments.