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Won civil suit; what happens next?

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Techdude

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Maryland
I sued my former land lady for money she owed me (security depost and refund, $675).
She did not show up for the hearing and the judge ruled in my favour.
He said I will be getting a letter soon, but right now I am wondering what takes place next if this woman still does not pay me the money

Thanks
 


mrblonde108

Junior Member
nothing. you can put a lien on the property or find out where she works then pay more money to the court to attach her pay check or bank account.

But really if she doesn't pay you will have to spend time and money to get your money. The best bet will be to send her a letter and demand full payment in 30 days or else you will file a lien for the judgement.

the court will send u a letter rendering the judgement amount in favor. You will have to go back to the court and get a letter of certificate of judgement, there usually is a small fee. then take that letter to the clerk of courts where real estate is handled and file a lien.
 
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ttom1

Junior Member
Can the OP subpoena someone who has knowledge of the defendant's bank account?

Also, if the OP can prove the landlady still has other tenants now, can the court ask the tenants to give their rent to the OP as judgment money? (maybe an absurd suggestion...)
 

mrblonde108

Junior Member
i'm not an attorney but i've been there. No, they will not take the rents from the other tenants. I think you would need the address of their employer and the bank. then you would have to pay the court again to have them order a garnishment and i think you need to know the current address of the person you're going after. Then if your successfulthe court will charge you for handling of the garnishment. The place of work will have to send the money to the court who will then have to pay you. With the bank it's a one time hit. I think they place a hold on it and the woman won't be able to remove money until the court order is satisfied but i'm not sure if the court can actually remove money from the account.

It's all costly a lien would probably be best. Eventually the property will be sold.
 
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Post Judgment Collection

More specifically, an excerpt from that page concerning bank levies/garnishments:

Garnishing the Defendant's Bank Account
In this instance, money in the defendant’s bank account will be given to you to help satisfy your judgment. Except in certain limited circumstances, you cannot garnish funds from a jointly held account unless your judgment was against both owners. You also cannot garnish retirement or escrow accounts.

The first step in garnishing a bank account is completing the Request for Garnishment of Property Other Than Wages (form DC/CV 60). To complete the form you need to know the name and address of the defendant’s financial institution, as well as the amount of your judgment and any additional money owed to you (such as court costs and post-judgment interest).

If you provide the proper information, the clerk will issue a Writ of Garnishment. The defendant’s financial institution (known as the “garnishee”) will be served with the writ, as well as a Garnishee’s Confession of Assets of Property Other Than Wages (form DC/CV 61). The garnishee has 30 days from the date of service to file the Confession of Assets with the court. You will receive a copy of the completed form, which will list any assets belonging to the defendant that the bank holds.

Once 30 days have passed since the original Request for Garnishment of Property Other Than Wages is served and the garnishee has filed an answer to the request, you can file the Request for Judgment Garnishment (form DC/CV 62). Before filing the form, you must mail a copy of the request to the garnishee and the defendant.

If the judge chooses to enter a judgment in your favor, the garnishee will be ordered to turn over to you the money withheld from the defendant’s bank account.
 
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ttom1

Junior Member
Then if your successfulthe court will charge you for handling of the garnishment.
Could the OP, in his original case, have included a phrase that asks for not only the return of deposit+interest, but also any future cost incurred in the collection of the judgment, including the cost of handling of the garnishment--but that would require a future hearing to decide these added cost, seems like running a circle?
 
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Willlyjo

Guest
Could the OP, in his original case, have included a phrase that asks for not only the return of deposit+interest, but also any future cost incurred in the collection of the judgment, including the cost of handling of the garnishment--but that would require a future hearing to decide these added cost, seems like running a circle?
All reasonable costs incurred by you in attaining payment in full from the judgment debtor should be added to the original judgment.

In answer to a previous concern you had, it seems that you CAN recover rent from the property owner who you have a judgment against by ultilizing form DC/CV 60 which is the request for garnishment other than wages.
 

latigo

Senior Member
All reasonable costs incurred by you in attaining payment in full from the judgment debtor should be added to the original judgment. . .. .
If not too inconvenient or burdensome of your time, would you please provide us your definition of what you describe as “reasonable costs” that “should be added to the judgment”?

Also helpful would be citations of your authorities for each item.

And why your use of the modal auxiliary “should" in your "should be"?

Do you often find this auxiliary verb “should” used in legal literature? Did you select it to convey a recommendation, a probability an expectation? Something definite, indefinite?

Or might the truth be that you don’t have a bloody clue of what you are talking about?
 
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Willlyjo

Guest
If not too inconvenient or burdensome of your time, would you please provide us your definition of what you describe as “reasonable costs” that “should be added to the judgment”?

Also helpful would be citations of your authorities for each item.

And why your use of the modal auxiliary “should" in your "should be"?

Do you often find this auxiliary verb “should” used in legal literature? Did you select it to convey a recommendation, a probability an expectation? Something definite, indefinite?

Or might the truth be that you don’t have a bloody clue of what you are talking about?
I'm rather shocked at your nit picking Latigo. Knowing what you know, you "should" see that "reasonable costs" added to any judgments to procure said judgment, for the most part, are usually accepted and goes without saying.

I think that if a judgment creditor would ultilize the court system and its fees to successfully force payment of such a judgment, then such fees ARE reasonable. Also, "should be" in my context, means that the probability exists in many states including Maryland that judgment recovery does indeed allow you to legally add reasonable fees that were incurred by the Judgment Creditor onto the judgment.

Give me an example in which such fees wouldn't be reasonable. I'm sure there may be rare instances where the judgement creditor may file a lien, then get a writ to seize assets and a bank account and then get an wage with-holding order to garnish wages all at the same time. But I don't think that realistically or intelligently happens too often. Do you?
 
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justalayman

Senior Member
I'm rather shocked at your nit picking Latigo. Knowing what you know, you "should" see that "reasonable costs" added to any judgments to procure said judgment, for the most part, are usually accepted and goes without saying.

I think that if a judgment creditor would ultilize the court system and its fees to sucessfully force payment of such a judgment, then such fees ARE reasonable.

Give me an example in which such fees wouldn't be reasonable. I'm sure there may be rare instances where the judgement creditor may file a lien, then get a writ to seize assets and a bank account and then get an wage with-holding order to garnish wages all at the same time. But I don't think that realistically or intelligently that happens too often. Do you?
so, just what are "reasonable costs". Some judgment debtors simply pay once a judgment is entered. Some need some persuasion. Some never pay regardless how much you spend trying. Just what would be reasonable, in your mind?

a court really doesn't like to declare a debt for future expenditures without some reasonable support they will actually be expenditures. With something such as a judgment for a debt, you have no way of knowing what expenditures there might be.
 
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Willlyjo

Guest
so, just what are "reasonable costs". Some judgment debtors simply pay once a judgment is entered. Some need some persuasion. Some never pay regardless how much you spend trying. Just what would be reasonable, in your mind?

a court really doesn't like to declare a debt for future expenditures without some reasonable support they will actually be expenditures. With something such as a judgment for a debt, you have no way of knowing what expenditures there might be.
If you or latigo sue someone and you prevail, then you become the Judgment Creditor. Right? The person who loses or has the judgment against them becomes the Judgment Debtor. If the Judgment Debtor does not want to pay you the judgment he owes you, then you will never see it unless you take steps to force him to pay, right?

Courts in many many states (including Maryland) allow you to obtain writs, levies, wage with-holding orders...etc. to force the Judgment Debtor to pay what he owes you.

If you obtain a court order which allows you to seize his bank account and you are successful with it, then you can add the fee you paid in obtaining the court order onto the judgment which the successful bank seizure will provide.

I would have thought both you and Latigo would have had enough common sense to see that. Further, my definition of "reasonable costs" is irrelevant--the courts definition of "reasonable costs" is!
 

justalayman

Senior Member
If you obtain a court order which allows you to seize his bank account and you are successful with it, then you can add the fee you paid in obtaining the court order onto the judgment which the successful bank seizure will provide.
a judgment is going to be for a specific amount. It is not going to include some unknown and non-specific costs that you may or may not incur in your attempts to collect on the original judgment. You can only take from a judgment debtors bank account what is ordered by the judgment. Since you cannot possibly include unknowns in the suit, those costs you might incur as you seek payment are not going to be within the judgment order and as such, you cannot take that money from the judgment debtors accounts. You would have to seek a separate order for the additional expenses and then attempt to collect on those. Of course, that suggests there might be additional costs in collecting that judgment as well. Sounds like a vicious circle.
 
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Willlyjo

Guest
a judgment is going to be for a specific amount. It is not going to include some unknown and non-specific costs that you may or may not incur in your attempts to collect on the original judgment. You can only take from a judgment debtors bank account what is ordered by the judgment. Since you cannot possibly include unknowns in the suit, those costs you might incur as you seek payment are not going to be within the judgment order and as such, you cannot take that money from the judgment debtors accounts. You would have to seek a separate order for the additional expenses and then attempt to collect on those. Of course, that suggests there might be additional costs in collecting that judgment as well. Sounds like a vicious circle.
I thought it was important to bring this up and be more specific with costs that can be added onto a judgement against the Judgement Debtor when the Judgement Creditor goes after the judgement.

In California there is what is called a "Memorandum of Costs" which gets filed with the Court after you get a Writ of Execution, place a lien or levy on property, attach wages, go after bank accounts...etc.

On the Memorandum of Costs, the Judgement Creditor lists the costs such as Court filing fees, Process Server fees or any other reasonable fees incurred in attempts to recover a judgement.

I'm sure that other states like Maryland, which allow you to legally go after judgements will have something quite similar to the "Memorandum" that California has. This is how you can take your judgement AND these costs via the Judgement Debtor's bank account (if done properly).
 

CourtClerk

Senior Member
In California there is what is called a "Memorandum of Costs" which gets filed with the Court after you get a Writ of Execution, place a lien or levy on property, attach wages, go after bank accounts...etc.
There is nothing in the CCP that says that a memo is filed after you get a writ, place a lien or levy property (et. seq.). In fact, you can file a memo after you've incurred post judgment costs REGARDLESS of whether you've filed a writ or not. In fact, there's a school of thought that says it's actually smarter to file the memo for all postjudgment costs EXCLUDING the writ BEFORE you file the writ.
On the Memorandum of Costs, the Judgement Creditor lists the costs such as Court filing fees,
Post judgment filing fees
Process Server fees or any other reasonable fees incurred in attempts to recover a judgement.
Post judgment service fees... And what one bench offers finds as reasonable would be a different interpretation of what a judgment creditor would find as reasonable... Of course then the judgment debtor gets to contest what they may not think is reasonable...
I'm sure that other states like Maryland, which allow you to legally go after judgements will have something quite similar to the "Memorandum" that California has. This is how you can take your judgement AND these costs via the Judgement Debtor's bank account (if done properly).
 

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