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statue of limitations on judgments

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lisdmichael

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Arizona

My boyfriend has a judgment on his credit report and the court filing date was 10/2002. In AZ I believe the SOL expires 5 years after this date unless the debt is renewed which would mean it expired in 10/2007.

The AZ statute 12-1612 states that a party can file a renewal of judgement "within 90 days preceding the expiration date of five years from the entry of such judgement"

We've never heard anything about this until last week when we received a letter from an attorney to collect the debt and set up payment arrangments. Am I correct in believing that this debt has expired due to the SOL? Is the letter we received a renewal of the debt?
 


Debt Guy

Senior Member
Here is what I found:

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS (IN YEARS)
Open Acct.: 3
Written Contract: 6 in AZ. - 4 outside AZ.
Domestic Judgment: 5-additional 5 upon request (indefinitely)
Foreign Judgment: 4

It may have been renewed.
 

Chien

Senior Member
Your best bet is to check with the court.

If it was renewed, a copy of the renewal should have been mailed to you but mailed to the address where service was made. You may have moved since.

It makes more sense that the attorney is trying to collect a renewed judment than one that has expired, and normal *good* practice is to have a judgment calendared for renewal, especially one that has a "short life" to begin with but can be indefinitely renewed.
 

lisdmichael

Junior Member
Thank you for all your assistance.
We found out that it was renewed in another court.
I do have a new question.

We have a joint bank account. Can they take funds from that account eventhough we are not married?
 

Chien

Senior Member
We found out that it was renewed in another court.

That’s not really clear. A judgment is renewed in the court in which it was originally issued, unless you mean that it was issued and renewed in another state and domesticated in AZ. As DG’s post indicates, that circumstance could change much of what you’ve been told.

Can they take funds from that account even though we are not married?

That has a yes and no answer. They can grab all assets that are ostensibly BF’s (meaning funds in an account with his name) (answer = yes). They can’t have assets that aren’t the judgment debtor’s (you) (answer = no). Therefore, if they grab funds, you have to prove that they’re yours and get them exempted. If you’ve been doing this for awhile – just commingling funds in the same account, without much thought to the need to ultimately do this - the task could be long, tedious and frustrating, at the very least, and unsuccessful to some extent, at worst. (Today, if you had to prove what money was yours and what was his, could you and what would it take? See what I mean?)

Your question is further complicated by the fact that you live in a community property state. I haven’t checked on common law marriage in AZ and am not going to. It just could be one more bridge you don’t want to cross and argument that you don’t want to have to rebut. The simple solution is to take steps to resolve the judgment and keep separate accounts until it’s done.
 

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