What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Iowa
I know that the person I'm going to win a judgement against will be hard to collect from. I think I've heard of the judge ordering a person to make payments. (ie $250/month) If they fail to make the payments you can take them back to court & the judge will find them in contempt. This would be a lot easier than doing garnishment as I think it would be more incentive to pay. Is there any way I can make that happen? Something I should file? Something I should ask?
All the judge can do is award you a judgment in your favor. The judge MIGHT be able to facilitate a payment plan if the two parties agree (as a settlement), but if the defendant is fighting the judgment, they aren't going to voluntarily accept any kind of payment plan. If there's no agreement or consensus, then the judge won't be able to ORDER a payment plan.
You will soon find out that it's relatively EASY to get a judgment. The hard part is actually collecting the money once you have one. That's the reason why a majority of judgments go uncollected for years - or EVER. That garnishment, if you can get it, will net you only 25% of the judgment debtor's paycheck. If you KNOW they have money in the bank, and you KNOW where they bank (bank and branch), then a bank levy is a better and FASTER way to go. Only the first $100 of a bank balance is exempt from a levy - the other 90% is fair game. Plus, with a levy, they won't know it's coming until the levy hits. By that time, they can try to challenge the legitimacy of the levy, or that the funds are somehow exempt, but the money stays frozen until that decision is made. With a garnishment, the employer gets notified ahead of the collection, who then notifies the debtor.
If a person wants to (and many do), they can avoid pretty much ALL collection activity by closing their bank accounts to avoid the levy and either changing jobs or getting paid in cash under the table to avoid the garnishment process. For this reason, there is a long statute of limitations on collecting a judgment. Iowa has a 20-year SOL, and an action brought on a judgment after nine years but not more than ten years can be brought to renew the judgment to extend that. I would also recommend asking the judge to order statutory interest on that unpaid balance, which is 10% per year.
