How do I collect on a judgement against a debtor who only deals in cash?

Question

How do I collect on a judgement against a debtor who is all cash? They have no bank account and rent everything or pay other people for things.

The only options I can see are:

1. Follow them home from work EVERY DAY with a police officer to take their pay.
2. Enter their house and take their financed furniture.
3. Take their worthless financed cars.

Is there anything else I can do? Judgment is 10k. Garnishment doesn't work because they understate income. I have reported them for tax evasion and drug use but police don't care.

Answer 1

To add to user6726's answer:

In general, you can only collect a judgement if there are assets or income available to be collected (i.e., owned by the debtor, and not protected from collection, such as personal items or part of the wages).

If you suspect the debtor has assets you do not know about, you can formally ask the debtor to declare their assets. In Nevada (and in many other US states), this is called an Examination of Judgment Debtor (or just Debtor's examination).

The basic idea is:

• You ask the court to order a debtor's examination.
• The court (after checking your judgement) orders a hearing where the debtor must appear (or they may be imprisoned for contempt of court).
• In the hearing, you can ask the debtor about their assets, and they must answer truthfully (usually under oath).

Details vary, as usual. See for example this page from the Las Vegas Justice Court: Examination of a Judgment Debtor.

As a practical note:

The whole process, as usual, means additional work and possibly legal cost for the creditor - so it only makes sense if there is a realistic possibility of finding previously unknown assets. As usual, this is a decision the creditor must make.

Answer 2

1 is not an option – you can't steal a person's pay, and the police won't help you. You only recourse there is legal wage garnishment, and I will take your word that their (reported) income is low enough that they are garnishment-proof. If you have petitioned for and been granted a writ of execution, the sheriff will have been ordered to collect, shifting the burden to the police (meaning, they will have to care at least about the debt). Furniture is exempt; a vehicle might be subject to collection depending on the person's equity in the vehicles. You can look at the list of things seizeable under the law in that link to see if it mentions anything you didn't think of, but it could be that there is nothing you can do presently.

Answer 3

Just to put it more clearly: You probably won't get your money, unless that debtor is really hiding a lot of money in stupid ways and gets caught.

There is probably some paperwork you can do now and again to prevent the debt from lapsing. Maybe at some point in the future the person would like to lead a normal, debt-free life again, and then you might get some money - but it's very likely this is going to be a negotiation, i.e. the debtor offers to go on a payment plan, but if they stick to it you agree to get only, say, 50% (or less) of the money originally owed.

A while ago I read a guide (for another, but probably similar jurisdiction) about how to legally live a nice enough (though materially basic) life without ever paying your debts (even accumulating them intentionally), and it's quite possible.

Answer 4

If the person has a stable employer, you go after the employer, and garnish the wages. It doesn't matter if the employer pays the debtor cash, they must give you the amount instead - that's what garnishment is. If the employer steadfastly refuses, they can risk a till tap being ordered, or even being held in contempt of court.

Of course the person can quit the job, and then you would have no wages to garnish.

Further, if the employer or debtor is obviously doing something illegal, like paying someone under the table or employing illegal workers, they have all the more reason to try to avoid judicial scrutiny, so it can spur them to cooperate.

You need to go through the rigmarole of getting to a wage garnishment. On the road to that, it is fairly likely the debtor does something stupid, like get caught obstructing the process, claiming an unbelievably low wage, etc. That may increase your legal options or place them in more legal jeopardy.