View Full Version : How do I collect a court judgment over 10,000
pleasantcorp
Oct 29, 2015, 02:50 PM
Someone hit my parked car and there insurance company denied my claim.
I tried to sue their insurance company but the people in the filing office told
Me I cant sue the isurance company I have to sue the individual, so I did and I
Won a 12,000 judgment. I was going to file a writ of execution but the people
In that office said I am not likely to receive anything near what I'm owed so I
Should talk to a laywer before I file. I cant find a lawyer that deals with accidents that don't involve injuries. What do I do?
cdad
Oct 29, 2015, 03:01 PM
You look for a lawyer that handles civil claims. You explain that you have won an award based on an accident and that you are trying to collect.
ma0641
Oct 29, 2015, 06:07 PM
There are some open ends here. Biggest thing is what was the reason for the denial? Did you have collision insurance? Typically, your company would pay and then subrogate. You can sue anyone you want. Whether you can win is another case. Remember, what is the basis for tort injury? The insurance company wasn't at fault, their insured was.
Fr_Chuck
Oct 29, 2015, 10:27 PM
Now that you won the case, have you presented the judgement to the insurance company, and demanded payment? But again, you will have to try to garnish wages, garnish bank accounts of the person who hit your car.
So you may want to also talk to some collection companies that have lawyers that work for them.
Also you can find many lawyers, that you will pay by the hour, (regardless if they win or not)
Collection of judgements are hard, in many cases they are never collected.
ScottGem
Oct 30, 2015, 06:58 AM
Winning a judgment is often the easy part. Collecting on it is usually harder.
The first thing I would do is refile the claim against his insurance carrier. If he had liability coverage they should pay the court awarded judgement. Other than that, you have to find assets and then get the court to issue writs of execution against the assets.
AK lawyer
Oct 30, 2015, 09:35 AM
What do you mean by "the people in the filing office"? It looks like perhaps you shouldn't have listened to them.
As others have indicated, consult with an attorney. Many take all sorts of cases, so finding "a lawyer that deals with accidents that don't involve injuries" is not what you really need to do.
You really don't need an accident "specialist". As you have a judgment already, any attorney should be able to help you; and be aware that most lawyers who do nothing but accidents do that because they want to; they aren't necessarily specially trained in that niche.