Once you have won a judgment, you are now considered the judgment creditor. As a creditor, there are many collection techniques available. In fact there are more techniques available than when you try to collect debts before getting a court judgment. Below are listed methods of collecting a judgment and limits to what property you can take.
Methods of Judgment Collection
Wage Attachment/Income Execution:
The first item we will go after is the judgment debtor’s paycheck through wage attachment or garnishment. This is a very effective technique when the debtor is receiving a regular paycheck. Even though a person receives a paycheck, they still may not be willing to pay for one reason or another. Through wage garnishment, you are sure to receive your money from the debtor before they get a chance to even see the money. Federal law allows a certain amount of the debtor’s earnings to be taken by the creditor, in most states. There are higher limits for certain types of debt, such as child support and income taxes.
Property Liens:
In most states, once a judgment is entered against a debtor there is a lien automatically placed on the real property they own in the county where the judgment was obtained. Instead of waiting for the debtor to sell their property, you the creditor can “execute” on the lien. This means having the sheriff seize the property and arrange for public sale from which you are paid out of the proceeds. This is an extreme measure that needs to be considered carefully. The expense and hassle of executing a lien may not be worth the return on the sale.
Property Execution:
A property execution is a way of taking personal items from your debtor in order to pay the debt owed. This is where you, as the creditor, can get a “writ of execution” from the court and go after the personal property of the debtor. Only a judgment creditor can levy a debtor’s property, so the judgment must be awarded first. After a sheriff takes the personal property (a baseball card collection, for instance) they will sell it and the proceeds will go to paying off the debt.
Assignment Orders:
An assignment order allows the creditor to go after property that cannot be subject to a levy. For example, this can be an anticipated tax refund or an annuity policy.
Limits on What a Judgment Creditor Can Take
This is something that varies state to state. The professionals at Accounts Retrievable will be able to navigate through the laws by utilizing our nationwide network of attorneys. Every state has certain property that is considered “exempt” from being seized by a creditor. You can learn more here about what is exempt from debt collection in New York State.
It’s bad enough to deal with calls from a debt collector. However, a phony debt collector calling to scam you out of money is even worse. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission settled charges with a California man who worked with a fake debt collection company in India. He and the company deceived Americans to the tune of $5 million over two years. While that bogus operation has been shut down and criminal charges are pending, we can expect that similar scams are in the works. The good news is that there are many warning signs that can give away a phony debt collector. Accounts Retrievable would like to help you spot these scammers so that you and your finances remain safe.
– One major thing to understand is that you cannot be arrested for having private debt. If you are being threatened with imprisonment or being told you are talking to a law enforcement officer, you can be sure it’s a scam.
– If you start asking questions of the debt collector and the story starts to unravel, it is probably a scam. Fake debt collectors will refuse to provide a written “validation notice” of the debt. This is a required practice under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
– The most suspicious demand will be a payment using a transfer service such as Moneygram or Western Union. This is a huge red flag.
The people who are often targeted by these scam artists are usually people who are in financial unrest. The scam artists are most likely getting information about these people from the internet so that they know who to target. They are counting on these people to be confused and overwhelmed about their debt and easily tricked by scare tactics.
Bottom line: ask a lot of questions and get your paperwork in order so that you know what you owe and to whom. These fake debt collectors are counting on people being unorganized and unaware of their rights. If you are educated and aware of your personal debt and the basic practices of a collections agency, then this is your best defense against a scammer.
Who hasn’t Googled an ex by now or found long lost friends and family through Facebook? The technology for finding people has been growing rapidly in the recent decades. Skip tracing has been a common practice for judgment collections companies since inception but with modern technology, debtors are having a harder time staying off the collections radar.
Judgment collectors used to have to sift through phone books, make extensive calls, and hound the neighbors in order to carry out skip tracing business. However the professionals in judgment collections businesses such as Accounts Retrievable have been able to utilize the digital trail that debtors leave behind to enforce judgments. The debtor doesn’t even have to be in the same state or country as the judgment collection company because with use of a computer or even a smart phone, debt collectors can track anyone down. Even police enforcement agencies are utilizing social media and social networking as a viable tool for solving and prosecuting crimes.
People are becoming more and more dependent on their smart phone. The benefit to skip tracers is that these smart phones have GPS hard wired into them and every app or function is usually geo-tagged when in use. The lines of right to privacy are more than a little blurred in this growing technology but as a judgment collector, this can be used to benefit your creditors. Even if a person is not necessary checking in on apps such as Foursquare or Facebook, their location can show up just from posting or searching.
With a little bit of know-how, social networking can be a great benefit for tracking down debtors. We can even track down those who are hiding out in other states dodging their child support payments or the judgment that has been placed on them. Skip tracing used to be an impossible job that required a large amount of foot work and paper work.
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The difficulty in collecting on a judgment comes when the debtor is being stubborn in hopes you will give up. The prospect of judgment enforcement and collection in New York can be difficult and expensive to pursue. There are options available to a New York creditor who needs judgment collection assistance. Utilizing Accounts Retrievable’s team of judgment collections experts is your best chance of judgment collection in New York.
Debtors may not have the money, may not make paying you a priority, or they may believe that the courts are wrong and they shouldn’t have to pay. Accounts Retrievable’s talented network of attorneys and debt collections specialists will find out the exact reasons why the debtor refuses to pay. From there, they can utilize negotiation tactics to help move the debtor along to start payments.
With more stubborn debtors, we put to use more involuntary methods. It is your right by law to be able to garnish wages and put liens on property and assets. At this point, most debtors who believe they shouldn’t have to pay will pay just to stop this process.
The responsibility of judgment collection in New York falls on you, the creditor. However most people have no idea where to start after they win a judgment. When you call ARS, you will receive all the help and information you need to collect a judgment.
Judgment enforcement is not easy for most people. Especially when debtors move, are refusing, or are hiding from their financial responsibilities. One you are awarded a judgment, it becomes your responsibility to enforce it. The laws are complex and the process is time consuming so most people will use a debt recovery agency to enforce their judgments. Judgment enforcement in New York is a vital area of the Accounts Retrievable teams work. The advantage to you in relying on a judgment enforcement team is that it greatly maximizes your potential for recovering money.
How our judgment enforcement team will benefit you:
– We will safe you time, money and frustration. All you need to do is submit your claim and all the facts of your case and Accounts Retrievable will do the rest
– Accounts Retrievable will increase your chances of recovering your debt whether your debtor is located in New York, nationwide or internationally. We operate with professionalism and will quickly get your money to you
– Our services come at no out-of-pocket expense to you. We work on a contingency fee basis
If you are one of the many people in the country that is not collecting child support that is due to you and your child, hiring a third party agency is the first place to start. With the economy belly-up, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for people, especially single parents, to earn a decent living to support a family. If your ex is not fulfilling their obligation to pay child support then you are not alone. It is not uncommon for a parent to escape the responsibility of financially supporting their child. You may feel helpless, but we can help. Accounts Retrievable is a leader in collecting unpaid child support.
There are many ways that you are legally allowed to collect from unwilling or negligible parents. Garnishing wages, bank accounts, or seizing assets may be possible for you to retrieve your money. We are well versed in state varied laws so that we can collect nationwide child support payments. For instance, in the state of Illinois it is possible to garnish gambling winnings won at casinos and race tracks. Other states may have laws such as this one, which allows us to get creative in retrieving your unpaid child support. Most debtors are skilled in avoiding paying their debts. It is highly important for you to be a step ahead of them. When you hire Accounts Retrievable to collect your child support payments, you can be sure that we have the skills necessary to collect what is owed to you.
Accounts Retrievable Collection Agency – Enforcing A Judgment
If your business has struggled with collecting on past due accounts, you may want to consider hiring a collection agency. If you’ve already made the decision to hire a collection agency, consider us. The Accounts Retrievable is a national collection agency that serves the needs of respected clients on a worldwide basis. Our clients include many different industries and different types of businesses such as wholesalers, retailers, credit unions, law firms, universities, banks, manufactures, and mail order companies. We receive claims from creditors all over the United States and even internationally. We receive claims against debtors all throughout the country. All of the staff at Accounts Retrievable are professionals and experienced in every aspect of debt recovery.
At Accounts Retrievable, our goal is to provide fas and efficient collection services at competitive rates. The standard in the collection agency is collecting on a contingency fee basis. We work on a contingency fee basis which means that if we collect we earn a fee from the money collected. If we do not collect on your account(s), we do not charge you for our efforts.
We collect on different accounts such as Judgments, past due child support, past due alimony, and other accounts from all different businesses and industries. If a judgment is entered in your favor this entitles you to certain remedies under the law. These laws enable us to collect the balance due on your judgment. Remedies that we will use to collect your judgment include garnishment of debtors bank and brokerage accounts, garnishment of wages and levy and execution of personal property. Personal property includes automobiles, boats, equipment, etc. And in exceptional cases we can levy and execute real estate and business assets.
Accounts Retrievable Systems – Factors Affecting Alimony
When alimony is being determined, the factors vary greatly from state to state within the U.S. Some state statutes, including Texas, Montana, Kansas, Utah, Kentucky and Maine, give explicit guidelines to judges on the amount and/or duration of alimony.
In Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee for example, alimony is granted only in cases of marriage or civil union of ten years or longer and the payments are limited to three years unless there are special, extenuating circumstances. Furthermore, the amount of spousal support is limited to the lesser of $2,500 per month or 40% of the payee’s gross income.
Other states, including Massachusetts, California, Nevada and New York have relatively vague statutes. These simply list “factors” a judge should consider when determining the alimony payments. In these states, the determination of duration and amount of alimony is left to the discretion of the family court judges who must consider case law in each state.
In general, there are four types of spousal maintenance:
Temporary Alimony: The is where support is ordered when the parties are separated prior to divorce. This type of alimony is also called alimony pendente lite which is Latin meaning “pending the suit”.
Rehabilitative Alimony: This is the support given to a lesser earning spouse for a period of time necessary to acquire work outside the home and become self-sufficient.
Permanent Alimony: Support paid to the lesser earning spouse until the death of the payor, the death of the recipient, or the remarriage of the recipient.
Reimbursement Alimony: Support given as a reimbursement for expenses incurred by a spouse during the marriage (like educational expenses).
Debt collection agencies are organized in order to assist credit card companies with their payment collections. In the last few years, the collection agencies have been very busy due to more people having a hard time keeping up with their payments. Usually, the work of collections agencies starts with one missed payment. This may mean that the debtor may have a late payment or an excess in the credit limit.
One way to deal with collections agencies is to contact the credit card provider as soon as you have incurred a late payment. By doing so, the company will see that you have the intention of working with them to get your credit card account on track. Credit collection agencies usually are willing to work with their clients just so they can keep their customers on their end. It is important that you are able to explain to them your situation and propose any solution that you may have on hand that may pacify the credit card company.
However, if things do not go the right way and you were not able to settle your debt on the right time, it may be possible that the credit card company sells your debt to a credit card collection agency. Usually, credit card collections agencies purchase the debt for cents on the dollar which is a small part of what you actually owe the credit card company. The collection agency would then push to gather as much as possible from you in order to boost their revenue. With this goal, there are some collection agencies who have debt collectors who are very persistent and are highly pursuant of the debtors.
There are of course some collection agencies who are very open and willing to work with the debtors in order to negotiate on payment schemes so that the debtor and the collection agency may avoid any legal action in the future. Going to court is very pricey and can take so much time and frankly, time is not something that both parties have on their end. It would be good if you can pay your debt at its full amount. With this proposal, some credit card collections agencies may even provide a discount for up to 25% of the original debt to honor your willingness to pay in full. It is very important that if this agreement is made, that you keep a record of this in writing so that both parties are informed and if something wrong comes up, you have the proper supporting documents with you.
There are times when further negotiations need to be made with the collections agencies in order to satisfy the customer and the credit card company. This can take a while but if no agreement is made, legal action may be put into place. it is still best if you can settle your debts as soon as you can and not go through the dreaded process that involved collections agencies which can cost you so much time and effort.