[adcordes]

I received a judgement against a contractor. How do I go about making sure that judgement shows up on his credit? Can I file the judgement in the county he lives in too? Can his wages be garnished? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[mr.yet]

You can subpeona him back to court for him to list his assets that you can attach. You can mail a copy of the judgment to the credit bureaus to be add to his credit report.

[ScottGem]

Getting a judgement is only half the battle. The hard part is getting paid. The court does little to help in that regard.

Posting the judgement to the credit bureaus does little to get you paid. If he cared that much about his credit rating he wouldn't have let it go so far that you got a judgement.

Getting a subpeona to determine his assets is a good move, but that assumes he has attachable assets. Most likely he's done things to limit that.

If he's a contractor, he probably doesn't draw wages.

Once (and if) you find assets that are attachable, you will need to have a sheriff serve the holder of those assets (bank, employer, etc.) with a copy of the judgement to seize or garnish them.

[this8384]

You need to make sure the judgment is docketed in the court system. If the judgment gets docketed, then it will show up on his credit that he owes you money.

I'm surprised the judge didn't order a financial disclosure. Then again, they may not do that in every state. If the debtor did get the order, then he has 15 days to fill it out and mail it to you. In the disclosure, he needs to list his place of employment, where his bank accounts are held, what assets he has, etc.

As Scott said, though, collecting is the hard part. I'm learning the hard way that our court system is absolutely worthless. I had a question as to whether I could garnish an unemployment check. I called the clerk of courts, an attorney and the unemployment office - no one had an answer for me. Sure wish I could get paid to know nothing about my job...