I'm often asked what my day-to-day routine is like running my business - to which my response is always "no two days are ever the same!" But I also know that wrapping your head around a new concept like judgment recovery can be a little mysterious to anyone who isn't actually in the field.
For me, personally, real-life examples have always been the best way to grasp what something's all about - so following is the first of three case studies that I'll be submitting for publication. These are actual judgment recovery cases, though I've changed the names for privacy purposes. This first case involves a judgment that was awarded to an individual person, against another individual.
To get right to the heart of the matter, we'll pick this up from the point where the judgment has already been assigned. If you're interested in the marketing process, you can read my blog article here: Marketing a Judgment Recovery Business.
To summarize the events leading up to the judgment, John Bennett's Saint Bernard dug out from under his fence and proceeded to completely destroy his neighbor, Tom Rosen's flower beds. Did someone bury a bone under there? Maybe it was the fertilizer… Unfortunately, Mr. Rosen had just invested over $2,000 in professional landscaping and design. Needless to say, Mr. Rosen took Mr. Bennett to court to sue for compensation.
These cases all start out in much the same way. When the documents to assign the judgment were mailed to Mr. Rosen for a signature, I included a 'Debtor Profile Worksheet' - which is a tool I use to find out any and all information Mr. Rosen may have about Bennett (the judgment debtor). In this particular case, I received nothing more from Mr. Rosen other than Bennett's full name and old address. That's okay. That's enough to start the pre-screening process.
Before I really got the ball rolling, I had to be sure I was pursuing the correct person and that I was aware of any potential aliases John Bennett was using. I also needed to get an idea about where I should start looking, so my first step was to locate Bennett's social security number, date of birth, and a reasonably current address. Seriously - with the right tools and resources all you need is a name and address to nail down this information.
Next, as part of my due diligence, I checked to make sure that the judgment hadn't been included in any bankruptcy discharge. This too, is a very basic and simple search. Bankruptcy filings can be a goldmine of information - so long as the actual debt wasn't included. Bennett hadn't filed any bankruptcy proceedings, so after that, I was good to go.
Since I always start with resources that are free - because let's face it, free is good - I 'Googled' John Bennett to see if I could dig up anything floating around the Internet. You'd really be surprised at what's out there… Newspaper articles, genealogies, LinkedIn, FaceBook - just to name a few.
Unfortunately, this time I didn't hit pay dirt - so to speak. So next I turned to free public records to see if Bennett currently owned any real estate or businesses. Nada. I wasn't discouraged, though, it's all just part of the process. It was time to pull out the big guns, which in this case, was a full consumer credit report.
The credit report revealed that Bennett was working at the local power plant. I called the plant's Human Resource Department to make sure Mr. Bennett was still gainfully employed. Happily, he was still there. In which case I decided my best option was a wage garnishment. In my state, I am entitled to 25% of his paycheck.
To get it all started, I had the court issue a writ of execution. This is basically a document from the court that verifies facts about the case (how much the judgment is and when it was awarded, how much interest has accrued, who the judgment debtor is, who the judgment creditor is, etc.). It serves as my 'permission' from the court to garnish Bennett's wages or to seize or to seize any other asset I can find. I completed and delivered the paperwork for my garnishment and paid my filing and levying fees. The costs I incurred will be added to the judgment.
If you're wondering about what costs I incurred in this case, they are as follows:
SSN Locate: $1.50 Bankruptcy Check: $0.08 Writ of Execution: $7.00 Wage Garnishment Fee: $25.00
TOTAL: $33.58
My wage garnishment went off without a hitch. Every time Bennett was paid by his employer, I was also mailed a check. Because I was receiving checks every week (and these tend to pile up when you have 15 or 20 going at one time), I opted to send Mr. Rosen quarterly payments - simply to avoid unnecessary bookkeeping gymnastics.
At this point, I could have invested a little more elbow grease to locate Mr. Bennett's bank account and taken that too, but steady payments from garnishments are a great source of residual income. Now that I had that going, it was pretty much on auto-pilot, so I could free up my time and attention for other cases.
Next week I'll send the next installment of this series; a case study involving an individual person that sued a company, and the details that led to that particular happy ending.
Warm Regards,
Christina
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Christina Smiley has been enforcing civil judgments and providing professional judgment recovery training since 1997. Want to learn more about how to make money with a judgment recovery business? Download Christina's popular free e-course, available at: =>
http://www.recoverycourse.com
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