Civil judgments are tools for establishing legal debts. Sometimes they are the result of a lawsuit and subsequent award. Other times, civil judgments are entered against defendants who do not pay outstanding debts. Either way, a civil judgment is a recognition of the debt and an acknowledgment that the creditor has the legal right to collect on it.
What do you do if you are served with a notice of civil litigation? You show up and plead your case. Hopefully you win. If you lose, you will have to pay the debt plus any additional costs approved by the court. And if you don’t show up, you will automatically lose anyway.
Here are your top three options for handling a civil judgment entered against you:
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1. Make Payment Arrangements
Creditors, their attorneys, and judgment collection agencies are not necessarily looking for blood. In most cases, they are willing to work with debtors to come up with amenable payment plans. Your first option is to be equally willing to work things out.
If the creditor is agreeable, you might be able to set up a monthly payment plan. Stick with that payment plan and you will have the debt settled over a period of time. If you would like to be cooperative but you can’t see how you’ll be able to stick with a payment plan, the creditor may choose to garnish your wages.
Judgment Collectors, a Salt Lake City, Utah debt collection agency specializing in civil judgments, says that most states limit the amount of money that creditors can garnish from a debtor’s paycheck. Garnishment may be a more affordable way for you to pay because state limits prevent the creditor from taking too much at one time.
2. Liquidate Other Assets
Your second option is to liquidate other assets and use the money to pay what you owe. Maybe you have a boat and an RV. You could put them both on the sales block and use the proceeds to cover your debt. Here’s the thing: many of the assets you could sell on your own can also be seized by your creditor. So if you have such assets, you might just as well voluntarily liquidate them.
Rest assured that hiding assets is not as easy as it sounds. Firms like Judgment Collectors have access to a variety of asset discovery tools that they regularly put to use. They also have plenty of experience tracking down assets that debtors are trying to hide. You will not get away with it, so don’t even try.
3. Refuse to Cooperate and Wait It Out
Your third option is the one you should absolutely avoid. It is the option of refusing to cooperate and waiting the creditor out. Unfortunately, this happens more often than you know. Debtors don’t provide information about employment and assets. They change their phone numbers and email addresses. They even pick up and move when necessary.
Refusing to cooperate is not only immoral, but it could also lead to bigger problems. For example, in states where the costs of collecting can be added to an outstanding judgment, the amount you owe could grow significantly as a result of a collection agency having to track you down. By refusing to cooperate, you are only causing the debt to grow.
In the end, a civil judgment is proof positive that you owe someone money. Paying what you owe is the right thing to do. You have other options, but how would you feel if someone who owed you money refused to cooperate? You would want to be paid. Well, so does your creditor.