California Debt Collection Blog

Two issues commonly appear regarding real property judgment liens (i.e., recorded Abstracts of Judgment):  (1) what happens when the debtor transfers the real property?, and (2) how is lienholder order of priority determined? Impact of Transfer of Real Property Real property encumbered by a judgment creditor’s Abstract of Judgment that is transferred or encumbered without satisfaction of the creditor’s lien remains subject to the lien - as if no transfer had occurred.  See Code of Civil Procedure § 697.390(a); see Dieden v. Schmidt, 104 Cal. App. 4th 645, 651-652 (2002). However, if the ...

In California, the general rule is that each party to a lawsuit bears its own attorney fees.  So if your contract is silent as to attorneys’ fees, and if you are forced to engage an attorney to collect from a customer, you generally must pay your own attorney – in other words, you cannot add your attorney fees to the amount owed by the customer. But this problem is easily solved.  Simply add a “prevailing party” provision to your contracts.  A standard prevailing party provision looks like this: “If any party to ...

If your judgment debtor owns a valuable car, consider seizing it to partially satisfy your judgment.  Doing so will disrupt the debtor’s life and/or business and will make it abundantly clear that you are willing to move swiftly and aggressively to collect.  It is relatively easy to do if (i) the debtor owns the vehicle outright and (ii) if you know where the vehicle is located. Here are the necessary steps: Step 1:  File a Notice of Judgment Lien with the Secretary of State.  This creates a lien against the debtor’s personal ...