Collecting on a Florida Judgment.

A judgment is the court agreeing that you are owed. It is not a check. Collecting on a judgment is the work that comes after the ruling: finding what the debtor has, and using Florida's enforcement tools to turn it into payment.

Turning a paper judgment into money in your account

You won. The court entered a final judgment saying the debtor owes you a specific amount, plus interest. You may have expected a check to follow. Instead, months have passed, the debtor is still in business or still employed, and nothing has changed except that you now hold a document that, on its own, is worth exactly what it cost to print.

That is not a failure of the judgment. It is what a judgment is. Collecting on it is a separate job, and this page is about how that job is done in Florida.

What collecting on a judgment means

A judgment is a court's determination that a debt is owed. It does not order anyone to write a check, and no one enforces it for you. Collecting on a judgment means using the tools Florida law gives a judgment creditor to take payment from the debtor's assets: money in bank accounts, wages, vehicles and equipment, real estate, and money other people owe the debtor. Every one of those tools depends on knowing where the assets are. That is why collection is, first, an information problem, and only then a procedural one.

The process is the same whether the judgment was obtained by this firm or another, and whether it is a Florida judgment or one from another state that has been domesticated here.

Why this matters to your money

A Florida judgment is good for twenty years. Interest accrues on it at a rate the state sets every quarter. Recording a certified copy in a county creates a lien on any real estate the debtor owns there, and filing a judgment lien certificate with the Department of State creates a lien on the debtor's personal property. Those liens take priority by date. The creditor who records first stands ahead of the creditor who records second, and a debtor who cannot sell or refinance property without clearing your lien tends to find the money.

The reverse is also true. A judgment that sits uncollected while the debtor sells the truck, closes the account, and moves the business into a relative's name is a judgment that gets harder to collect every month. Florida gives a creditor real tools, but it also gives debtors real exemptions: the homestead is protected, wages of a head of family are largely protected, and an individual can keep a vehicle and personal property up to modest dollar limits. A corporation or LLC gets none of those. Knowing which rules apply to your debtor is most of the strategy.

Just suppose

The following is an illustrative example, written to show how the process works. It is not a real client, a real matter, or a promise of any result.

Imagine you run a hospitality staffing company in Orlando, supplying banquet servers and housekeepers to hotels and event venues along International Drive. A conference-services contractor used your people for a season of trade shows, then disputed the hours, then stopped paying. You sued and, eight months ago, won a judgment for $61,000. Since then you have collected nothing. The contractor is still booking shows. Its trucks are still on the road. Your attorney from the lawsuit has moved on to other matters.

You bring the judgment to a collection firm. The first filing is not a writ; it is a judgment lien certificate with the Department of State and a certified copy recorded in Orange County, so your priority is fixed. Next, the court is asked to order the debtor to complete a fact information sheet, the sworn form Florida requires a judgment debtor to fill out listing bank accounts, property, and income. The contractor ignores it. A motion for contempt and a subpoena for a deposition in aid of execution follow. Faced with testifying under oath, the contractor's owner produces the sheet: two bank accounts, a warehouse lease, four box trucks, and receivables from three hotel groups.

The firm serves writs of garnishment on both banks the same week, capturing about $14,000. It serves writs on the three hotel groups, intercepting payments due to the contractor. It delivers a writ of execution and levy instructions to the sheriff for the trucks. Before the sheriff's sale is advertised, the contractor's counsel calls. The judgment is paid over the next five months from garnished receivables and a lump sum the owner borrows to release the trucks.

The judgment was always collectible. What changed was that someone did the work.

How judgment collection works in Florida

It begins with information. Some of it you already have: the credit application, cancelled checks that show the debtor's bank, an address, the names of the debtor's customers. Some comes from public records: corporate filings, property records, UCC filings, other judgments. The rest comes from the debtor, under oath. Florida's rules of civil procedure let a judgment creditor obtain an order requiring the debtor to complete a fact information sheet, take the debtor's deposition, and subpoena documents from the debtor and third parties such as banks. A debtor who refuses can be held in contempt, and a court can issue a writ for the arrest of a debtor who defies its orders.

With information in hand, the tools are chosen to fit. Bank garnishment reaches money on deposit. A continuing writ of garnishment reaches wages, subject to the head-of-family exemption. A writ of execution and levy reach vehicles, equipment, inventory, and real estate through the sheriff. Garnishment of the debtor's customers reaches money before it arrives. Proceedings supplementary reach assets the debtor moved to someone else. Each has its own procedure, its own costs, and its own timing, and they are often used together.

Because a judgment lasts twenty years, a debtor who has nothing today can be revisited when circumstances change. A judgment that cannot be collected this year is not a judgment that should be forgotten.

Common questions

Another law firm got my judgment. Can you collect it?

Yes. Judgment enforcement is routinely handled by a different firm from the one that tried the case, and the referral relationship is common. See our page for attorneys.

What if the debtor has other judgments against it?

Then priority matters, and it is set by who recorded first. Being behind other creditors is a limitation, not a dead end; in practice the creditor who actively pursues collection is often the one who gets paid.

What can't be taken?

From an individual: the homestead, most wages of a head of family, and personal property and a vehicle within Florida's dollar limits, among other statutory exemptions. From a corporation or LLC: essentially nothing is exempt.

How long do I have?

A Florida judgment is enforceable for twenty years. The lien on real estate lasts ten years and can be renewed once; the judgment lien certificate on personal property lasts five years and can be renewed. We calendar all of them.

The discipline behind the result

Judgment collection is procedural work done in the right order: fix your priority, find the assets, choose the tool, execute it correctly so it holds up. We do it every week, for judgments large and small, and we will tell you at the start what we think the judgment is worth pursuing. Bring us the judgment. Call (813) 288-1881.