How Much do
Judgment Enforcers charge?
Q: How much do Judgment Enforcers charge to enforce my judgment?
A:
Most Judgment Enforcers charge you nothing out of pocket, you
only pay a portion of what is recovered from the debtor.
Most Judgment Enforcers (JEs) charge 50%,
because most judgments
are difficult and expensive to enforce.
The best Judgment Enforcers usually stick to 50%, as
they often use lawyers and PIs to go after the
debtor to recover your money much quicker.
However, everything is negotiable, and every
judgment situation is different.
When a judgment is tough because the judgment debtor has
no assets showing, and has deeply hidden assets that are
very hard to reach, an enforcer might charge much more to
recover a judgment, we have seen 90%. The reason the
original judgment creditor accepted 90% was the risk,
costs, and difficulty of recovering the judgment was very high.
Still, 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing...
Some JEs keep the interest a successful judgment
recovery can earn - and some split the interest with you.
(Laws may be coming that reduces the interest rates
debtors have to pay. Also, interest is not always
collected in real life.)
We know many people with a new judgment think 50% is too much
to pay. And in some situations, 50% may be too much to pay.
How much you pay is between you and the Judgment Enforcer.
If you want your judgment enforced for 25% and you have
a large judgment on a rich debtor - perhaps 25% is fair.
(Bill Handel says 20% at most - what is he smoking?)
JudgmentBuy stays out of it, it's between you and the Judgment Enforcer.
Note that when the debtor is overseas, or
is going to very hard to collect from, sometimes 80% for
the Judgment Enforcer and 20% for you is fair!
First let's save
you some time. (JudgmentBuy
saves you a lot of time and money.)
If you
want your judgment to
be enforced for less than 50%, or want to sell your judgment for
cash up-front only,
or have any other
request, just tell us. We will list your exact requests, for free,
with no obligation, on our web site.
We work with the best Judgment Buyers, Enforcers, agencies,
and collections attorneys.
The best charge 50%. If you want to pay less than 50%, or have any
terms or preferences, please tell us before we list your judgment.
As long as you tell JudgmentBuy first, it's all good.
Every judgment and situation is different, but (especially on
small judgments that are not easy) 50% is an average fee.
There are many reasons why 50% is usually very fair - including:
- There are many ways for debtors to make
enforcement difficult and expensive.
- The economy means fewer debtors
have available assets.
- Enforcing judgments takes lots of time - and many
years of (always ongoing) study.
- Court, Sheriff, postage, and process-serving fees are higher now.
- Often the time, work, and money spent
on enforcement is not
recovered, that is the
risk taken on by the JE.
- Professional JEs have full access to - and must
pay for expensive private databases and information services that are
not available to the public - or on any "web detective" site.
As experienced and verified JEs that own judgments, JEs
are authorized to use "restricted" databases - similar to those used
by law enforcement and investigative agencies.
- To have access to the above, a JE
must meet several requirements - including
passing a background check, having an office, passing a site
inspection by a licensed private investigator, having
a business license, etc.
- Enforcing judgments is a business with expenses and overhead.
- New laws that protect debtors are being created every year.
- Bankruptcy is rising at an exponential level.
JudgmentBuy refers judgments to
professional JEs, to better go after judgment debtor's assets.
Upon a successful recovery from the debtor -
the Original Judgment Creditor (OJC) always get their share.
JudgmentBuy only saves you time and money, you never get less
by starting with Judgmentbuy.
The JE (who worked hard to
recover your money), perhaps a Finder, and JudgmentBuy,
split any leftover net profit after you are paid.
If judgment debtors have assets,
they sometimes live "under the radar" paying cash
for everything - and working under the table. Sometimes they
get assets
out of their names, into the name of someone else - or offshore, etc.
The work to find debtors and their assets, and perhaps undo
asset hiding is laborious, costly, time consuming,
and requires many court appearances at least, and major
investigations.
Even "easy" and "quick" cases have court-related and other costs.
Judgment Enforcers (not you) pay all the expenses of enforcement.
The best Judgment Enforcers pursue the judgment debtor
until all current assets are seized, past
assets are put back into the judgment
debtor's name and seized, and future
assets are recovered to satisfy the judgment.
When the judgment debt
is large and the debtors are hiding massive assets,
Judgment Enforcers sometimes work with
lawyers and receivers
(see our Receiver and
our
Finding The Right Lawyer
articles), to uncover and seize hidden assets.
(Also see our National
Lawyer State Bar List).
If the judgment debtor changes their name and
moves overseas and hides their assets -
the Judgment Enforcer will
likely return the judgment back to you, as nothing can be done
unless the judgment is huge and the debtor has lots of assets.
You get paid after the Judgment Enforcer
recovers money from the judgment debtor.
You get (e.g.) 50% of any money they recover from the debtor.
Fifty percent is usually
the necessary and standard rate for experienced
Judgment Enforcers (JEs). 50% enables JE to
cooperate (share rewards, see our
Coop article)
with JEs (near the debtor) -
to follow the debtor no matter where they go. 50% allows
JEs to dig deep, hire lawyers and PIs, and spend lots of time and
money to discover and take debtor's assets.
While there are some JEs
who enforce average judgments for less than 50%,
such JEs may be new,
or may give up on and return
all but the easiest-to-enforce judgments.
In general, a JE at 50%, is
more likely to get you paid. If your large judgment
really is easy to enforce, a discount from 50% should
be considered.
Every situation, debtor, and JE is unique.
If you assign an easy-to-enforce
judgment to a JE and it really is easy-to-enforce, the JE
may reduce the 50% charge.
If, and how much the JE reduces the charge
depends on many things (up to the
JE alone to determine.)
Most JEs are fair, and do not benefit from
unjust enrichment.
Note that when the debtor is overseas, or
is going to very hard to collect from, sometimes 80% for
the Judgment Enforcer and 20% for you is fair!
Even if you think your judgment enforcement will be easy, e.g., you
know where
the debtor works and banks,
most of the time it is not so easy.
The bank account almost always has
less than the amount owed. Debtors can
lose their jobs. There can be other
creditors ahead of you.
The debtor can file for bankruptcy protection.
(Even if they "can't" go bankrupt, nothing stops
them from trying again.) Hundreds of other things
can happen to make your "easy judgment"
require money, expertise, and persistent
efforts over a long time - to enforce.
Rarely, "easy" (larger) judgments are really easy to enforce.
In those cases, JEs
might choose to reduce their fee. It is up to the JE.
Generally, JEs do not believe or
participate in, unjust enrichment.
Q: What about discounts if I sent more than one judgment ?
A: Each judgment is unique. Sending more than one judgment
does not save any significant time, or any money for a Judgment Enforcer.
You can ask for a discount, but please don't argue,
Judgment Enforcers do not discount rates on average, tough-to-enforce
judgments.
Discounts are usually not appropriate on small (under $7,000)
judgments, or with non-rich judgment debtors.
Q: What do you think if I send just one of my judgments, and see how
you do? If you successfully enforce the first judgment,
then I'll send you the
rest of my judgments.
A: Each judgment is unique. "How we do"
depends on the debtor. Whether a Judgment Enforcer can
recover one judgment has nothing to do with how they can enforce
the next judgment.
Either with JudgmentBuy's
advantage and expertise, or without - holding onto your other judgments
only reduces the chances you will be paid,
and delays how fast money might come to you.
Go Back To Articles
JudgmentBuy.com Home Page
|
