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My company was awarded compensation in an small claims case in Colorado. The defendant has filed the interrogs with the court, but we have not received them. Is the defendant legally required to provide us with a copy?
Also, the court will not provide us with a copy unless I go down to the courthouse - which is kind of far away. Should I just go down there, or wait for our copies that are hopefully in the mail?
Also, what is the next step after so recieve the interogs to collect?
You were awarded a judgement for x amount. That puts you in the Catch 22 of judgements. Now you have to collect. To collect you need to find assets for the plaintiff and get a writ from the court to attach those assets.
Interogatories are generally requested by the plaintiff or court to determine what assets the defendant has to pay the judgement.
It sounds like you have filed for garnishment, or levy already?
The company that filed the interrogs, did so as an answer to the garnishment or levy?
I would want that copy, even if I had to drive and get it, just so I know what was answered.
If this is a business, with a cash register on site, you can levy for the sheriff to go and get your money from that cash register. The forms for this will be available at your court house and can be picked up with your copy of the interrogs.
Minus a cash register on site, you will have to obtain account numbers to levy the bank accounts. Has this defendant ever paid you by way of check? If so, you may be able to get account numbers from copies at you bank.
Without any source for this information, you may be able to file a Judgment Debtors Exam.
This will subpoena the defendant to court where they will be sworn in under oath and instructed to answer any questions you ask that pertain to collection of your judgment.
If they don't show up, or refuse to answer, or you can prove that they lied, they can be arrested for contempt of court.
We have not filed for garnishment or levy yet. We were just in court 11 days ago. Interrogs were filed 8 days after that.
I definately need to go drive to pick up the interrogs as the court will not provide me with their copy, nor will the defendant send me a copy (although he did send a balance sheet for the LLC and copy of his personal bank account statement - I think just to confuse us or show us that he has personal money, but that we wont get it. He also stated all LLC expenses were capitalized and no revenue has been recieved. He gave us his lawyer's info and advised us that we should file a lien again the company or a UCC filing, but that they do not have the ability to pay - but upon sale of compay the lien would have to be paid).
I believe that the account numbers for the LLC will be in the interrogs. With that info, we will file for garnishment or levy? What is the criteria for filing a 'Judgement Debtors Exam?
You file a plaintiff's motioin for a Judgment Debtors Exam with the court.
You should receive copies to take to the County Sheriff or process server to have them
served on the defendant or the court may forward them for you after the judge has signed the motion.
If you have account numbers in the interrogs, you may be in business, if there is sufficient
funds in the account. For that, you file a Plaintiff's motion to levy.
The bottomline here, as I indicated is that you have to find assets of this LLC to seize. The fact that it is an LLC means this guy knows his stuff and is using the LLC to hide income. You may be able to get the court to help find his assets by a Debtor's exam or similar. The Interrogatories are a similar tool used to determine the defendant's assets.
But until you find some assets to use to pay the judgement you are stuck. That's why he's thumbing his nose at you telling you to file a lien. He's probably operating the business so he can get cash out without showing any company assets. And that leaves you in the cold.
Denver County Court does not have a Debtor's exam, but uses the interrogatories.
Also, we orginally file the suit against the individual, but the judge added his LLC as a defendant while we were in court. The case summary screen print we recieved from the court shows the judgement as:
Now, when I call the courtroom to get clarification on what this means, they are not helpful at all and just tell me the judgement is against both the individual and the LLC, and the judgement debt reads individual owes $0, LLC $$$$.
What does this mean for my case and how does it effect in my collections?
Also, what if he removes all assets from the LLC? Or hides the assests in an entity under another name? Can we make him personally responsible?
We dont want to loose our opportunity to collect what is ours in the first place. Please help!
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