Q.What is a judgment and what is its importance?

A.A civil court may award a judgment in a specific dollar amount in favor of an unsecured creditor against a debtor.  This may come about in one of two different ways.  A creditor may obtain a default judgment against a debtor if a creditor sues a debtor and the debtor fails to defend the lawsuit in a timely manner.  If a debtor defends the creditor’s lawsuit, the matter will generally go to trial if the parties cannot settle the lawsuit.  If the creditor is successful at trial, the court will award a judgment in favor of the creditor against the debtor.

It is prudent to immediately obtain legal advice if a creditor has sued you.  Consumers who fail to defend a creditor’s lawsuit in a timely manner are at risk of having the court award a default judgment against them.  Your creditor may have sufficient documentation to obtain a default judgment, but may not be able to introduce sufficient evidence at trial to be successful.

Importance of a judgment

The fact that your creditor has obtained a judgment against you is no guarantee that the creditor will be able to recover any monies from you.  But once your creditor has a judgment, it will be able to take advantage of enforcement remedies that are available to judgment creditors in your state.

Enforcement remedies available to judgment creditors vary from state to state.  Some states are more sympathetic to judgment debtors and have more generous exemptions limiting the scope of enforcement remedies.  The most common enforcement remedies involve garnisheeing a portion of the judgment debtor’s wages, seizing monies in a judgment debtor’s bank account, and placing a lien on real property if the judgment debtor is the legal owner of the property.