Accounts Retrievable Systems – Info About Judgment Collection
If the time to appeal in the court of origin has lapsed, and the judgment has become final, the holder of a foreign judgment, decree or order may file suit before a competent court in the U.S. which will determine whether to give effect to the foreign judgment. A local version of the Uniform Foreign Money Judgments Recognition Act applies in most states, for example in California. 13 U.L.A. 149 (1986).
A judgment rendered in a “sister” state or a territory of the U.S. is also referred to as a “foreign judgment.” 47 states, the District of Columbia, Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands have adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, 13 U.L.A. 261 (1986), which requires the states and the territories to give effect to the judgments of other states and territories, if an exemplified copy of the foreign judgment is registered with the clerk of a court of competent jurisdiction along with an affidavit stating certain things. The only U.S. states which have not adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act are California, Massachusetts and Vermont. Legislation was introduced in Massachusetts in 2012 (Bill H.4268) to adopt the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act.
New York State and Connecticut are two of a small minority of U.S. jurisdictions that does not simply allow a judgment creditor to file a foreign judgment from a sister state if the judgment was obtained by default (meaning the other side never showed up for to contest its entry in the other state by, for example, defending himself at trial) or the judgment was obtained by confession (meaning the other side signed paperwork allowing a judgment to be entered against him). Instead, a party wishing to domesticate the foreign default judgment or foreign judgment obtained by confession must bring another action in New York State “on the judgment” where the relief sought is to have the foreign judgment domesticated in New York State. Moreover, a quicker “motion-action” procedure is available in New York where the owner of the foreign default judgment/judgment by confession files a summons and notice of motion for summary judgment in lieu of complaint.
When seeking to enforce a judgment in or from a state that has not adopted the Uniform Act, the holder of the judgment files a suit known as a “domestication” action. Since the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. constitution requires that states honor the judgments of other states, the domestication of a judgment from another state is generally a formality, even in the absence of the expedited procedure under the UEFJA.
To solve the problem of libel tourism, the SPEECH Act makes foreign libel judgments unenforceable in U.S. courts, unless those judgments are compliant with the U.S. First Amendment. The act was passed by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama.