I recently won a case where I sued someone for hitting my car. Now the only problem is that they are not paying me what they owe. Now I have to file a Writ of Execution to garnish their wages but first I need to find out where they work but I do not want to subsribe any website nor pay any fees. Any ideas, tips, or tricks to finding out what I need to know? I know where they live and that's about it.

It may prove difficult without having an investigator. My cousin got a similar jugement against a guy who severely injured my cousin's eye with a ballbat. The judgement was for over $100,000 but the guy never paid. My cousin's lawyer was able to find out employment and get some of the wages garnished. The person left the job after a few weeks, and went unemployed or worked under the table for a few years. That was the last time my cousin saw any money.

If you personally trail the guy, you may end up convicted of stalking or something, so be careful about what you decide to do.

You mentioned that you recently won a case. Did you have a lawyer? What state and what court? You can send the defendant post-judgment interrogatories - questions to be answered under oath; such as, where do you work? Where do you bank? How much do you earn? It is legal harassment.

I have the same situation. A mechanic took my money and didn't fix my car, now I find out he was unlicensed. I won the judgement at Small Claims, but he is not paying. He doesn't own his house, so can't put a lien on it. He works under the table in Nevada somewhere, so attaching his wages isn't going to work. But his wife works for the state (California here).. could I somehow get her involved? Can I contact the IRS and intercept his tax return if I sent them a copy of the judgement?

I realize this answer is a little late, but I've heard other people ask similar questions for years and I assume there are other readers with the same question.

My understanding is you have won a judgment against somebody, and you want to know where they're employed so you can garnish their wages.

I'm not a lawyer and this obviously isn't legal advice by any stretch, but I thought I'd relate some of my personal experience. As a judgment creditor the general principle is that you are entitled to discover personal financial information about the judgment debtor. So I'd file whatever your local equivalent of a "judgment debtor exam." Basically you file that demand with the court, and the court will turn around and contact the judgment debtor, usually in the form of a list of questions they must answer about their financial affairs, which would include basic questions like where they work, where they bank, how much money they make, do they own any real estate and where, etc.

My understanding is these things come in about two major forms, one being an exam they are expected to answer on paper and return to the court, and the other being a personal exam, i.e. they have to show up at the court and you get a chance to ask them questions.

I had a local court serve a judgment debtor exam by ordinary mail once, and the judgment debtor simply ignored it. Getting around that problem is the most important part. Your tool to compel the judgment debtor to answer the questions is simple -- if they don't comply, you then may ask the court to issue a warrant for the debtor's arrest.

The rub is that, at least around here, the judges don't like to or won't sign arrest warrants on judgment debtors who were only served by ordinary mail. If you want to do this by mail then you may want to look seriously at getting proof that the questions were actually received, such as certified mail or what have you. You'll have to do a little digging to find out what the judges actually want in order to be willing to sign an arrest warrant if you judgment debtor refuses to comply.

And don't be surprised if you have to obtain an arrest warrant. The upside is, an active warrant for your arrest can be pretty compelling to some folks about answering those questions and/or making some payments. :)

I hope you found this answer helpful.

My husband moved to hemet California. He owes me back support numerous sanctions, and even a habias warrant. He lost his job with american airliens. How can I find out if he as a job in hemet or the woman he left me for found out he is a liar, cheater, and sorry excuse for a man. Can anyone help me find him? Please.. still trying to get divorced in Texas 2 years later.. thank you... dosha teehee