Civil lawsuit judgment

[julibowman]

If you have a civil judgment against you and you file a civil lawsuit later against another party and you win, can the plaintiffs from the other lawsuit that have the judgment against you take your settlement from the lawsuit you won. Is there a statute of limitations for someone to collect money from you?

 

[Unregistered]

Yes, a civil judgement is good for ten years and can be renewed for another ten years.

 

[fredrikklaw]

Will it be poetic justice?

In California, a judgement has a 10-year shelf life during which the Judgement creditor can attempt collection, with an option to renew the Judgement for another 10 years if it remains uncollected, and then another and then another. So basically, a judgement's enforceability is perpetual unless the creditor does not wish to, or fails to renew after any 10 year period, in which case the Judgement is said to extinguish.

Now, whether any settlement you might receive from a lawsuit may be garnished by the creditor depends entirely on how aggressively the Judgement creditor pursues collection and the amount of the judgement. If the judgement has been referred to a collection agency or if the creditor does his own collection in house, then your financial status will be periodically assessed by a Skip Tracer who will alert creditor as to your new found wealth, followed by levies, liens, and garnishments galore.

The opposite would obviously be that you are not being pursued that seriously by the creditor or the judgement may well have been, or be extinguished sooner or later, in which case you can accept a multimillion dollar winning lotto check on national T.V. and no one will be knocking on your door to collect the debt.

The best way to gauge the seriousness of the creditor to collect would be to check with your County's Recorder Office to see if the an Abstract of Judgement has been recorded against you, or not. If there is one, then the creditor means business and if you do not see one, then the chances are that you are not being monitored seriously.

Left alone to enjoy your settlement in peace and quiet. If you can collect that is!

fredrikklaw