Collecting on a Court Judgement

Collecting on a Court Judgment.

Here is a fast, low-cost and effective legal way to collect on a court Judgment if you accept cheques (on a regular basis) from other companies in the course of doing business. If you use this information wisely . . . it can save you time, money and aggravation. Here's what you need to do in order to make it work.

Each time you receive a cheque make a photocopy of it before you deposit it. Why photocopy the cheque? Because, if one day, they run-up a sizeable account balance and for whatever reason decide not to pay you, then you may be forced to pursue legal action against them in order to get paid.

Once you have a judgment against them, put the following into immediate action. One of the fastest ways you can collect on a judgment is to obtain a garnishee order. This is a court order made to an individual or an organisation requiring the debtor's bank or employer give you from the debtor's account, or, direct from wages, money to pay for the judgment. The costs of issuing such an order will be added to any outstanding court costs.

However, you can only use this strategy if you know what bank the debtor uses or know the employer. It's not necessary to pay additional legal costs and expend further efforts in the attempt to gain this information . . . if you already have on file a copy of one of their cheques.

Of course this presumes

• the debtor has money in the bank account and it is not for example a line of credit.
• the debtor has not moved the bank account as a result of the judgment;
• the Bank doesn’t decline to comply with the court order because of a banker’s lien for example the right to set off some other overdrawn account such as arrears on a mortgage.

Make a photocopy of your customer's cheques and place them in a special folder or file. You may never need to use it, but if you do, you'll be in a stronger legal position of obtaining your funds

This method of having a copy of their cheque "on file" is simply much faster, easier, and a whole lot cheaper. By using this simple but effective strategy you can in most cases arrange for the garnishment to be issued on the same day that the judgment is entered.

Taken from LEGAL GUIDE by RPEmery & Associates