By Bryan Grundon

One of the worst things you can be told after going through the lengthy and expensive process of obtaining a judgment is that your debtor has moved to another state – and taken their assets with them. The court has already decided that they owe you money. It shouldn’t be hard to enforce it, should it?

Unfortunately, California is one of only two states that has not enacted the Revised Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, the purpose of which is to simplify the process of collecting on your judgment in a state different from the one in which it was entered. All hope is not lost, though. We can help simplify the process of enforcing your judgment in California.

The Superior Court of California requires an out-of-state judgment to be domesticated before you can collect on it. This involves obtaining a certified copy of the original judgment and filing it with the local court along with a number of other documents detailing the terms of the judgment and notifying the debtor of the domestication. Once all of the necessary paperwork has been filed with the court, you will be able to obtain what in California is called a sister-state judgment, which allows for the enforcement of your original judgment.

In most cases, before you can collect on it, you will need to serve the new judgment on the debtor and allow them thirty days to respond. Once the thirty days have passed, or the court rules on the challenge to the judgment, we can begin the collection process on the judgment in California, just like you would in the judgment’s original state of entry. If the judgment debtor is not a resident of California or emergency circumstances approved by a Superior Court judge execution proceedings are allowed immediately.

We do whatever it takes to give you the best possible shot of collecting on your judgment, from levying your debtor’s bank account, to garnishing his wages or putting a lien on any property she may own in California. Even if you don’t know what kind of assets your debtor has in California, we can take care of it. Our staff, along with the experienced process servers and private investigators that work with us, know just how to track down a debtor’s assets, from running bank skips to locate their open bank accounts, to serving them with an order to appear in court and reveal their asset information.

Recently, we had a case where we obtained a sister-state judgment against a corporation doing business in California. When our client could not provide us with viable asset information on the debtor, we had our process server track down the CEO of the company and personally serve him to appear in court and provide us with all of the company’s financial details. Whatever your situation, you can rest assured that your foreign judgment is in good hands with us.

Claims of Exemption

by Antonia Gordon and Bryan Grundon

There are many ways to collect on a judgment. Wage garnishments and bank levies happen to be two of the most common and reliable methods. With the first, we can garnish a debtor’s wages and thus ensure consistent payments on a judgment. With the second, we gain access to whatever funds a debtor has in their account at the time of the levy.

Unfortunately, garnishments and levies may not always be completely successful. After the Sheriff serves one of these on a bank or employer, the debtor receives notice and has a chance to respond to it. They can complete a form called a claim of exemption, which allows them to claim part (or all) of their wages or the funds in their bank account as exempt. If the claimed wages or funds are necessary to support the debtor or their family, the court may grant their claim (in full or in part), and we will not be able to collect the full amount from the garnishment or levy. The debtor, however, must provide proof that their earnings or funds are exempt. The first step to this is filling out a financial statement in which they list their monthly earnings and expenses, including those of their spouse.

Once a debtor files a claim of exemption, you have the opportunity to oppose it. If you do not oppose it by following a very specific procedure, the exemption is granted by operation of law. Opposing a claim of exemption involves reviewing the debtor’s financial statement to look for any inconsistencies or excessive spending. If we believe that the debtor can afford to pay more than they claim, we will set a hearing with the court and file paperwork to oppose the claim. At the hearing, both parties will get the chance to argue their side. In most cases, the debtor can afford to pay at least a small amount, even when they claim they cannot afford to pay anything at all. In their financial statements, debtors may overestimate how much they spend on certain things, such as food and gas. We have even had debtors claim they make a certain amount per month only to have their employer reveal that they actually make significantly more. Judges are never happy to see this kind of deception! We make sure we have the full story before going to court, so the debtor ends up paying what they can actually afford, and you are able to collect on your judgment.

Collecting Judgments Using Social Media

By Antonia Gordon

More and more, it seems we are living in the age of over-sharing. With a click of your mouse, you can go on Facebook and see what your high school classmate ate for breakfast this morning. It has become increasingly common for people to post every detail of their lives on social media for all to see. This includes the most personal and private of information.

Many debtors have made the job of collecting a judgment so much easier, just by posting on their social media accounts. A lot of people are either unaware or simply don’t care how much of their lives they share with the world. They post about where they go, who they spend their time with, and, most importantly for us, where they work. Sites like LinkedIn, in particular, have made a person’s employment information readily available to the public – this is the basis on which they are built! This makes a collector’s job a lot easier, as wage garnishments are one of the best and most reliable means of collecting money from a debtor (see The Nuts and Bolts of Wage Garnishment ) By openly sharing their place of employment with anyone who happens to look at their page, they speed up the collection process.

Debtors’ social media pages can offer a lot more information than you would think. I’ve seen one debtor who tagged his location on Facebook as the address of the apartment complex where he lives. This certainly made serving him to appear in court much easier – after all, he confirmed his home address for us! Serving a debtor is also made easier when they post an abundance of selfies on their Facebook pages. When our process servers have a photograph of a debtor, they do not need to worry about possibly serving the wrong person.

Now more than ever our debtors have proven to be helpful in the process of collecting against them – often without them even being aware of it!

 You’ve gone through the trouble of obtaining a judgment and now you want to collect on it.    One of the best ways to do that is to garnish your debtor’s wages.    How exactly does that work?   First thing you need to do is figure out who their employer is or if the debtor is a W-2 employee.  If the person is a 1099 independent contractor wage garnishment will not be effective you will need an assignment order which requires a completely separate procedure. If you know that already then find where that company’s agent for service of process in California is located.   When you’ve figured out what county that person is located in you need to obtain a writ of execution from the court for that county. 

 Once a writ of execution is issued it is valid for 6 months.   You take the writ of execution and you submit an application for earning withholding order.  Each county is different as to exactly what you have to prepare and submit with the package.     You send the completed package with the writ of execution to the sheriff’s department.   Some counties in California (notably most Bay Area counties) will not directly serve the earnings withholding order.  You have to basically open the wage garnishment by paying the Sheriff to open the file then hire a private process server to actually serve the whole earnings withholding on the debtors employer.   

A similar process can be used to serve garnishments in counties that are extremely backed up with serving process particularly Sacramento and Los Angeles county which seem to house the most. The employer has an obligation to return their response called the employers return.    The employer has to state whether the person is employed there or not, how frequently they are paid, and the amount of pay there last pay period.  Finally, The employer has to state whether any other orders affecting the employee’s wages are present and, if so, whether they have higher priority (family support order notably jump ahead of civil orders).   There is a threshold for garnishing wages.  Employees have to make a minimum to have the wages garnished.  There is also a maximum percentage of wages that can be garnished 25% of disposable income.   If there are multiple orders the first in time is paid in full first before others are paid (similar to first in time for a lien on a piece of real property).  

 Assuming, you have the highest priority and the debtors doesn’t claim the funds exempt (see our blog post on Claims of Exemption) then the employer will send the funds the sheriff.  The sheriff will then hold the funds for some period of time, usually several weeks then cut you a check for the amount garnish less their fees ($12.00 per check-  this amount is charged to the debtor).

Contact us HERE for help collecting your California judgment using wage garnishment.

TO COLLECT FROM A CONTRACTOR

There are many contractors you can trust.  I know a great pool contractor, Zier Pools led Jay Zier and Gerry Hernandez.  You can check them out at Zier Pools  Unfortunately, not all contractors are as good and trustworthy as them.   Check out Adam Carolla’s show http://www.spike.com/shows/catch-a-contractor to see some examples. When things go bad and you obtain a judgment against a licensed contractor, the law provides some leverage. A judgment against a contractor which is construction-related (the law gives a very broad definition of construction related) that is not paid within 90 days can result in the contractor’s license being suspended pursuant to Business and Professions Code §7071.17. Suspension of a contractor’s license means that the contractor can’t work legally.   The suspension isn’t automatic you have to take some action to make it happen.  It is significant leverage to get your judgment paid in a timely fashion.

Contact my office HERE today if you have a judgment against a licensed contractor.

3 ISSUES THAT COME UP REPEATEDLY DURING SETTLEMENT NEGOTIATIONS IN CALIFORNIA

By Law Office of Bryan M. Grundon

One of the interesting things about my practice is that I get to deal with people from all walks of life. I’ve dealt with sophisticated financiers, doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, restaurant owners, MTV Real World Contestants, and professional athletes, to name a few. Despite the varied background and circumstances of people I deal with, I hear a lot of the same things from them and their attorneys. When I hear one of these oft repeated statements I think of Bill Murray’s classic movie, Groundhog Day, with issues that come up repeatedly when attempting to resolve a matter.

3 QUESTIONS REGARDING SETTLEMENT NEGOTIATIONS

1. “What is the lowest amount you will accept to resolve this?” My job is to vigorously represent the interest of my client to the best of my ability. If I am working to actively get the best deal I can for an adverse party I am violating my duty of loyalty.
2. “XYZ creditor took 20 cents on the dollar. Why won’t you?” Frequently, I will have attorneys, debt settlement companies and debtors call me and say, “I worked out a deal with XYZ creditor and they took 20 cents on the dollar. I hear that is the industry standard. Why won’t you do it?” In my experience there really isn’t an industry standard for collection of commercial or consumer debt. I am only using 20% as an example. I get a wide variety of percentages which furthers my point that there is no industry standard. I’ve dealt with a number of commercial clients, including some of the biggest banks, insurance companies and credit unions on the planet. Each has a different approach to litigation and settlement. There is no cookie cutter industry standard.
3. “You should take this extremely low settlement offer. If you don’t I am just going to file bankruptcy and you will get nothing. Something is better than nothing.”

I hear this all the time. This threat never changes my approach to litigation. Most of the time, the people that are making this threat to me do not file for bankruptcy protection. The people that are going to file bankruptcy simply hire attorneys and file the petition.

Effectively negotiating settlement is an essential skill for a collection attorney. Knowing what to expect and having a plan to respond can make all the difference in the world. Contact my office and see if we can help you collect your judgment.

By Bryan Grundon

Can you go to jail for unpaid debt? Behind bars for skipping out on your bills? Technically, imprisonment for unpaid debt is unconstitutional.  In fact, the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act specifically prohibits debt collectors from threatening seizure of property or imprisonment on civil matters unless the ability to take such action is lawful and the creditor intends to take such action.

Because, just like life, with the Constitution and laws, there are caveats, and one or more of those may be the reason you, or someone you know, ended up locked behind bars.  

From employers refusing to pay employees to “deadbeat dads” skipping out on child support, the court has held that these individuals are in contempt of court and thus imprisoned for failing to pay debts.

In a 1948 California case involving employer Walter Trombley, the court held that an employer who willfully refuses to pay his employers, even though he has the ability to do so, could be held in contempt.

Imprisonment for debt was also addressed in Bradley v. Superior Court, a 1957 case in which a husband failed to pay spousal support to his ex-wife. In Bradley, the court stated that family support obligations did not constitute as normal debt and therefore did not fall under the constitutional prohibition of imprisonment for debt.

In Moss v. Superior, the father was ordered to pay child support based on a projected gross monthly income, since he was unemployed at the time of the court order. Yet, the mother claimed that he willfully refused to seek employment and was thus in violation of the court order.

The court held that the prohibition of debtor’s prison did not bar the court from finding the father in contempt of court and imposing jail time because the father had the ability to pay but willfully ignored the child support order.

In all of these cases there’s an underlying theme: the individual was aware of a court order requiring they pay a certain amount and chose to willfully ignore the order. Therefore, they were subject to the punishments reserved for contempt of court.

Our office has handled matters where a judgment debtor willfully refused to comply with a court’s order.  In one such case, we had obtained a money judgment on a promissory note secured by a Mercedes, and the judgment included an order directing the judgment debtor to turn over possession of the Mercedes. We served a copy of the Judgment on our debtor. He did not turn over the car so we sought the court’s help in enforcing the judgment. The court set an order to show cause for the judgment debtor on contempt. When the debtor failed to appear for the hearing the court found the judgment debtor in contempt order him to spend 7 days in jail if he did not comply with the court’s order within thirty days. On day 29 I arrived at the office to find a Mercedes key in the mail slot and the Mercedes parked in the lot.

Do you have a judgment that seems uncollectable? We can help you find that individual, serve them and bring them to court. Contact Bryan M. Grundon today.

USING A BANK LEVY TO GET TO YOUR DEBTOR’S SAFE DEPOSIT BOX

By Law Office of Bryan M. Grundon

I am a child of the 1980’s and a huge movie fan. One of my childhood favorites is The Goonies. The Goonies search for a hidden treasure in order to save their neighborhood. While our post judgment collection activities are never as exciting as the adventure of the Goonies or another of my movie favorites, Indiana Jones, occasionally our post judgment work is exciting. One such instances is levying on a safe deposit box.

The way to reach a safe deposit box is by doing a bank levy. A bank levy is an order you serve on the financial institution that tells the institution to turn over the money held by your judgment debtor up to the amount that will satisfy the judgment. When the levy hits a safe deposit box owned by the judgment debtor, they are essentially locked out of access to the box to remove contents and the Sheriff sets a date for the opening of the box. The judgment creditor usually pays an additional fee for opening the safe deposit box which includes a fee for a locksmith to open the box and sheriff to appear and take the property in the box into their possession. 

On one occasion, I decided that I would attend to see first hand what it was like when the safe deposit box was opened. Upon my arrival at the bank I spoke with the Sheriff’s Deputy who was supervising the opening of the box. He asked me what sort of expectation I had for the experience. This was only the second or third time our office had opened a safe deposit box so I told him I didn’t really have any. He mentioned to me that in his almost 20 years of experience doing this sort of levy they had a 20% hit rate where they found anything of value. The Sheriff’s Deputy opened the box and we saw two items in the box. One was a thick dirty looking envelope and the other was a jewelry box. The deputies first turned to the jewelry box and when they opened it they found several rings, chains and cufflinks. Next the Sheriff opened the tattered envelope. We were all pretty surprised when the envelope revealed a large stash of cash about an inch thick. We took to the pile of money to the counterfeit detection and money counting device. The total amount of cash was five figures. The deputy told me that it was the biggest haul he had seen from a safe deposit box levy in his career.

While it wasn’t as good as finding One Eyed Willie’s rich stuff, it moved us closer to satisfying another judgment.

By Law Office of Bryan M. Grundon of Law Office of Bryan M. Grundon posted on Monday, May 26, 2014.

Memorial Day is a great opportunity to reflect on the amazing country we live in and to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defending our country.  Briefly, I thought about writing about two famous American heroes: Pat Tillman and Jerry Coleman.  Col. Jerry Coleman was the longtime radio voice of the San Diego Padres.  On top of being a phenomenal baseball player (American League Rookie of the Year and World Series MVP).  He was a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War. He was the only major league baseball player to see combat in both wars.  If you have a moment, check out this story on mlb.com: Jerry Coleman.  

Pat Tillman was a very successful NFL Football player with the Arizona Cardinals.  After 9/11 he gave up a lucrative NFL contract to become an Army Ranger.  He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan a few years later.  Read more about Tillman and his foundation here: Pat Tillman Foundation.  Both men are great examples of true American Heroes.   

I think it is more important to honor one that you likely have never heard of because he was never famous. He is still just as much as an American hero as the other two.  His name is Kris Domeij and he was killed in Afghanistan in 2011 on his 14th combat deployment. Domeij killed in combat.  Kris and I went to the same high school. I was a few years older; while he was in high school I was in college.  During college I returned home to help out the football program during spring practice and lift weights with the team which Kris was a member.  Kris and I usually work out at the same time.  I didnt know him well but I spent a lot of time with him over those few summers.  He was very funny and hard worker.  He had the perfect temperament for an offensive lineman.  

After his death I’ve read a lot about what an amazing soldier he was.  In fact, the army has dedicated a building in his honor. Army Dedicates a building to Domeij.  I never had the chance to tell Kris thank you for all he did for our country and I’ve never met his wife and daughters.  Today I’m thinking about him and his family and the ultimate sacrifice he made for our country. 

Thank you, Kris, for all you did for us. 

By Law Office of Bryan M. Grundon of Law Office of Bryan M. Grundon on Thursday, May 22, 2014.

Inspector Lawyer: The Detective Aspect of Collecting

One woman made a break for it and took out her garbage. Another debtor attempted to pull out of his garage. And one man was attending a social event, chatting with friends and sipping drinks.

All of these individuals unsuccessfully avoided the process server and were eventually personally served with an order to appear for a judgment debtor’s exam, a slam-dunk for anyone attempting to collect on a judgment.

When you have obtained a judgment you can seek an order for the judgment debtor to appear in court and answer questions about their assets. Forcing judgment debtors to appear in court and reveal where they work and bank, where their spouse works and banks, and what property they own is one of the many ways to collect on a judgment.  

Unlike regular service of process, debtor’s exams must be personally served, which can make them a bit of a challenge. Yet, knocking down that barrier is possible if you employ a variety of detective-esque tactics.

Finding a current address is the most obvious first step. Simply looking through the white pages or Googling a name doesn’t always reveal an accurate address, particularly with seasoned debtors who are adept at hiding their whereabouts.

Donning our detective caps, we use a specialty database that pulls from recent utility records, work information, real property holdings, criminal records and a variety of other information to sniff out a current address. If this background check fails to lead to any viable addresses, we’ll continue snooping around by running an address skip.

Once an address for that sneaky debtor is discovered we’ll send it out with a process server. For some, the prospect of a debtor’s exam is the last straw, they cede defeat and pick up the phone, offering to settle.

Yet, there are still many debtors who would rather slink out of their homes in the dead of night than spend a day in court detailing their finances. And they will do all in their power to avoid service. That doesn’t mean we call it a day. Setting up stake-outs, wherein the process server waits outside the debtor’s home, often results in successful service. After all, that garbage will eventually get stinky.

Contact Bryan Grundon today to see how he can help you track down that sneaky debtor.