I took my car to a mechanic, but he took the money and ran. I took him to Small Claims and won the judgement, 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, so I can't attach his wages. What can I do? His wife works for the state (here in California), can I attach her wages? Can I intercept their tax return through the IRS? My car is going to explode before I get the money to have it fixed..

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Originally Posted by arohr07

I took my car to a mechanic, but he took the money and ran. I took him to Small Claims and won the judgement, 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, so I can't attach his wages. What can I do? His wife works for the state (here in California), can I attach her wages? Can I intercept their tax return through the IRS? My car is going to explode before I get the money to have it fixed..

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Unless you named his wife in the lawsuit, you cannot garnish her wages. Unfortunately, you cannot intercept their tax return either.

You can try to freeze their bank accounts but check your state laws; I recently found out that my state will not freeze an account with less than $1,000 in it.

This is the unfortunate part of small claims; winning is easy - collecting is next to impossible.