Question regarding Civil Procedure

[FlaRiptide]

Why does civil suit procedure not require the loser to be court ordered to pay the winner of a judgment? I would think that the judge could order the loser to pay or be subject to jail, etc.. The long difficult process for the average person to go through, not to mention the additional costs involved make it unrealistic to pursue a small claim. After winning a judgment a person is still a far cry from ever collecting the money. It appears to me that small claims court should start at $2,500 instead of $-0-. Anything less than $2,500 would be more costly and time-consuming for the average person to pursue.

Is there an easy answer that explains why the legal system is setup this way?

I'm going to take a wild guess at this myself... Perhaps the Courts don't want the clutter of small claims?

 

[dee_dub]

Well, we used to have debtors' prison for people who didn't pay their judgments. Should we return to that?

I disagree with your comment about small claims. Obtaining a judgment can be satisfaction in itself whether or not it is collected on.

 

[FlaRiptide]

Just seems the courts could be a bit more helpful. After the hardship of bringing the case and winning the ordeal has yet begun! You must record it with the court (makes no sense to me at all since the court issued the darn thing!), get a certified copy & pay a fee, petition the court for disclosure & pay attorney & additional court costs, go to the Sheriff's dept. and file for a writ of execution & pay a fee. Then you wait several months and hope for the best. By this time the cost of claiming a $350 judgment has more than equalled the judgment itself! (Maybe the money is well spent to learn all the legal procedures that are required - you're a junior attorney by the end!! :>)

The satisfaction you speak of is not complete satisfaction. I believe the civil suit loser has the satisfaction of knowing that in most cases they will never have to pay up.

 

[seniorjudge]

Most judgments (especially small claims) remain unsatisfied.

All the court does is give you a judgment.

If you want to collect on it, then it is up to you. That's the way it has been in the common law of England and the United States for many centuries.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

The steps vary from state to state.

In my state (Georgia), filing in Civil/Magistrates Court (our version of Small Claims) requires one filing fee for the actual hearing, no attorney fees, no fees to have each party receive the judgement which the court sends by mail.

The issuance of the judgement does allow other avenues such as wage and bank garnishment to be available should one choose to go this route.

And, unfortunately, many of these judgements do go uncollected, although we have the option if FiFA should we choose to go this route.

In some cases, however, the concern over judgements showing up on credit reports is enough to cause the person to fork over the owed fees.

Gail

 

[FlaRiptide]

What is FIFA? Unfortunately in my case the person cashed my check at my bank, thus I don't know his bank info. He is self employed, thus cannot garnish. The other routes to take would involve hiring an attorney (discovery, etc) and cost would exceed the judgment.

You bring up another good question... By having a judgment does this automatically somehow get to the credit bureaus? Or would I need to submit the judgment to Equifax, and the other two?

Thank you...

 

[seniorjudge]

...By having a judgment does this automatically somehow get to the credit bureaus? Or would I need to submit the judgment to Equifax, and the other two?
...

There is nothing automatic in the law; send the agencies certified copies of the judgments. Sometimes the agencies do a pretty good job of picking up public info; sometimes they do not.

FIFA = fieri facias which is Latin for, "Sheriff, go get the debtor's stuff and sell it."