Trying to collect money from judgment

[scrunchy]

My husband and I are from Philadelphia, Pa. We got married July, 31 1999. We hired a wedding photography company from New Jersey. A representative came to our home in Philly to go over the contract and to look at sample photos and we signed the contract in Philadelphia. The wedding has come and gone. When we recieved the proofs, they were so under-exposed that we not see faces, just images. We did not have a good selection of photos to choose from for our package. We paid $1,180.92 for our package. The church ceremony is the most important part of the wedding and all of the church photos were messed up. We took the proofs to other professional photographers and photolabs and they couldn't believe the lack of quality even in the proofs. We were told that even with computer enhancement, the pictures will not come out clearly.
Due to the info we received, we decided to sue the Photo company is small claims court in Philly for $10,000. They did not show up and we won by default. We were told that the judgment had to be transfered over to New Jersey so that we can collect. We hired a lawyer about 5 months ago so he could handle it. Our questions are:

1)How long does it take to transfer a case over to another state? It's been 5 months. Should we consider someone else?
2)We sued the owner of the Photo company. Did we sue the right person or should we have sued the Photographer himself?
3)If things don't work out with this lawyer we hired, how can we collect? & do we need a lawyer anyway?

Thank You
scrunchy

 

[JETX]

First, the bad news... your PA judgment is probably worthless in New Jersey. A default judgment (the defendant doesn't appear) is considered a weak judgment since it can fairly easily be voidable. It is CRITICAL that the correct party be sued and in the correct entity. For example, if your photographer was working for a corporation, that corporation MUST be listed as a party to the suit, with service on their registered agent. If your contract was with an individual, then THAT individual must be a party, in his correct legal name. (I have had cases where judgment was issued against "Bubba Johnson" and it was voided because his real name was "Robert Johnson". Also, judgments against an individual owner of a business, only to find that the business was a corporation.).

Now, why is it worthless... In order to transfer a judgment from one state to another (called a 'sister-state' or foreign judgment), it CANNOT be a default judgment. That is because they are considered weak and the Defendants full rights of defense were not exercised.

So, to answer your questions:

Q1)How long does it take to transfer a case over to another state? It's been 5 months.
A1) If the judgment was 'Strong Judgment' (a bench, agreed, or trial), it is a fairly simple matter of sending a 'Certified Exemplified' copy of the original judgment to the new state with a filing fee. The new state then accepts the original courts finding of fact (some states require prior notice to the defendant). If it is a 'Weak Judgment' (default) judgment, it probably cannot be transferred. One other option: If the photographer has assets in PA, or you can convince him to bring assets into PA, you could arrange to sieze those assets in PA. This would be extremely hard to schedule a 'Writ of Execution' at the same time as the assets are in PA. Maybe if you could find that he is doing another local wedding and 'hit' him there???

Q2) Should we consider someone else?
A2) Probably won't do any good.

Q3) We sued the owner of the Photo company. Did we sue the right person or should we have sued the Photographer himself?
A3) You need to sue the entity that you entered the contract with. If a corporation ("Bob's Photography, Inc.") then you need to sue them, and serve on the company' agent for Service. If the contract was with Bob Johnson, d/b/a Bob's Photography, then you need to sue in that capacity ("Bob Johnson, individually, and as Bob Johnson d/b/a Bob's Photography"). Also, if an individual or d/b/a/, you can also add the photographer personally, ("Bill Johnson").

Q4)If things don't work out with this lawyer we hired, how can we collect? & do we need a lawyer anyway?
A4) Sounds like you need to style the lawsuit correctly and sue him in his home jurisdiction. You can do this yourself or through an attorney.