Q. The Judgment Enforcer sent me paperwork saying I have to assign all rights, title, and interest in my judgment. Why do I have to lose control of my judgment?

A: Because when the judgment enforcer is not a lawyer or a collection agency, you must assign “all rights, title, and interest” in your judgment. It does not matter whether you sell your judgment outright for cash up-front, or on a standard future-payment contingency basis.

This is because when one is not a lawyer, they cannot represent you in court. Note that judgment assignments happen thousands of times a day, it is the way most judgments get enforced. Your financial rights are preserved by your purchase agreement.

Note that you are only losing control of your legal right to enforce/recover money on your judgment. You are not losing or releasing your financial interest in the judgment. As the judgment enforcer’s purchase agreement shows, they have a fiduciary obligation to pay you your share of any money recovered from the judgment debtor.

When a collection agency or a contingency collection lawyer recovers your judgment, you retain ownership of your judgment – and do not have to assign it. However, most contingency lawyers and agencies will not take average judgments. (See our Assigning Judgments Article).