With my long-term perspective, I understand the the cash up-front value for the majority of judgments is now very limited. Almost every day, I talk with at least eleven judgment creditors, and exchange emails with at least ten more.
Far too frequently, if I break the news to people their judgment is not worth much cash up front, they feel I'm wrong.
It is like they are listening to the truth concerning their judgment, for the first time. Most owners of judgments don't believe the reality concerning the situation with their judgment.
There are websites which brag that they judgments at "up to 55%", which will not pay even two cents per dollar on typical judgments.
Some old estimations one can find on the web, assert that about 80% of judgments will never be.
I have been enforcing judgments for around ten years, and have worked as a judgment broker for 3 years. I have very direct experience with several thousand judgments, and have learned this:
These days, about 95% of judgments not paid quickly, are never recovered, for more than ten percent of the amount due.
When I assert that 95% of judgments are not recovered, I am not including judgments that have been settled or dismissed. The reasons behind my ninety-five percent observation is:
1) Our economic situation is awful, and many debtors have far less assets these days compared to the last few decades.
Judgments are not the same as cash, and only the judgment debtor can repay a judgment. When the debtor is broke, not much can be done, and the judgment stays almost worthless.
2) Courts and laws are changing, becoming more expensive, and getting slower. Judgment enforcement is more expensive, slower, and occasionally extremely difficult in certain courts.
3) Debtors are much more likely to file for bankruptcy these days. Usually, bankruptcy kills judgments.
4) Judgment enforcers and buyers of judgments are leaving the business left and right.
5) Contingency lawyers, judgment enforcers, and judgment buyers, have become super picky with what kinds of judgments they might consider.
When a judgment debtor has lots of money, it is easier to to find a contingency enforcer, or sell a judgment. These days, very few debtors have even an average amount of available assets.
For most of the judgments where the judgment debtors have few or no assets; it seems that either judgment owners are consistently refusing to believe the truth, or few people tell judgment owners the truth.
The reality is, it is now extremely difficult to sell judgments for more than one to nine percent of their listed amount, depending on their judgment debtor.
The average future-payment collection fee averages 50% when you do not risk or pay anything for a judgment enforcement. If the judgment debtor has substantial assets, or when one pays all expenses, one may find a lower future-payment enforcement fee.
Most judgment buyer and listing sites are now out of business. The sole judgment trade/sell/buy site left, gets few actual transactions, as most judgment owners price their mediocre judgments far above 5%, so nobody buys them.
It is a shame, that most judgment creditors can't acknowledge the reality about the minimal cash upfront value of most judgments. Some contact countless judgment experts.
In my job, I've seen a repeating pattern. For example, a judgment owner phoned me a year ago about their $100,000 judgment, they wished to sell for $30,000 cash up front.
I explained that nobody pays that much of a percentage, for a cash up front judgment sale. Also, that he will be far more successful with a future-pay collection, and an enforcement expert would send him about of fifty percent of the amount that is possibly collected.
When the judgment creditor understood that, he told me they will pay fifteen percent to get their judgment enforced on a future-pay basis, and not even a penny more. I said to them nobody could do that, and good luck.
What resulted during the following year, was I got a lead for a judgment from approximately 50 judgment specialists, from the exact same creditor, who had persistently and aggressively sent and discussed his judgment all over the nation.
About a year after that, the creditor called me again. They explained that he had called 300 judgment experts during the previous year, trying to locate an agreement with his unrealistic conditions.
He still had not found even one enforcer or buyer, for his unrealistic terms. He then asked me if I knew any newer buyers now, that would meet his price. I said no, nobody is going to offer him $30K cash up-front to buy his judgment.
An irony is, his judgment debtor appeared to have several assets. The 100K judgment owner, was not any closer to recovering anything for his judgment; and he squandered so much time for others and himself.
Some judgment owners think that with a down economy, judgment enforcers and buyers will compete for their judgment. This isn't true, as the expense and difficulty of recovering judgments have drastically increased. Judgments are not commodity things ruled by supply and demand pricing behavior.
Many judgment owners think they can get a much better price if they shop their judgment. They are wrong. The truth is a judgment is only worth the amount a buyer pays for the judgment based on their debtor, not for what an alleged buyer boasts they might pay "up to".
A judgment sale price, or the percentage fee on a future-pay collection effort, doesn't have anything to do with the judgment owner's wishes or needs. Usually it doesn't depend on the enforcer or buyer, and almost always depends entirely on the status of the judgment debtor.
Think about contacting 300 companies and people for a year, and not learning the problem. The problem is, the creditor was not facing a reality, that a judgment is never cash, and are usually not worth much up front.
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http://www.JudgmentBuy.com - where Judgments and debts quickly get enforced by an expert - matched expertly for free, to the judgment debtor.
Mark D. Shapiro, the judgment expert. We pay for leads, and have the best quality free leads for collection agencies, enforcers, and contingency collection lawyers.
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