Does a Debtor owe you money? Do you have a judgment against them? 

We provide post-judgment remedies to judgment creditors throughout Texas – Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Corpus Christi. We provide our clients with an effective means of judgment enforcement by searching for a judgment debtor’s tangible liquid assets; which are the bank, savings, checking, money market accounts, and brokerage accounts in the debtor’s name. In addition, we can conduct an employment search to determine where the debtor works. The next step towards satisfying the judgment is garnishing the debtor’s wages. Depending on the state and debtor’s income, the creditor may be able to garnish wages, up to 25% of his or her wages, to satisfy your judgment. Call and talk to an Expert about our services in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, Arlington, and Corpus Christi, Texas.

We are a judgment enforcement investigation agency that specializes in representing creditors as aggressively as the law allows in matters of judgment enforcement and recovery. If the judgment debtor owes you money and either refuses to follow the court order or cannot afford to pay the amount of the judgment. The judgment creditor may be required to take additional steps and incur further expenses to collect the judgment. Depending on the laws in your state, the judgment creditor may be able to force the judgment debtor to pay for the collection fees required to enforce the judgment.

Whether you’re looking to conduct a pre-litigation / pre-judgment asset search or you already have a civil judgment in place, at Stryker, we bring the same persistent determination to go the extra mile if that’s what it takes to get you an equitable outcome. You won’t get lost in the shuffle with our firm because we provide individualized attention to each case and each person. Our consultations are free of charge, and the consultation allows you an opportunity to talk to someone who understands your situation and it’s legal environment.

Bank Records Analysis Though Subpoenas – If the debtor is moving money through accounts, the use of subpoenas to trace transactions through various accounts where the debtor may be hiding money in their name or the name of others is a critical technique in tracing fraudulent transfers.  A subpoena can be issued by an attorney, a self-represented individual, or a service hired by an attorney using court-supplied forms. Subpoenas can be issued in criminal cases, in private (“civil”) lawsuits; they may also be issued by government agencies conducting their own investigations and proceedings, administrative or criminal (e.g., IRS, SEC, FBI, even issued by the President of the United States on behalf of the military).

TYPES OF BANK AND BROKERAGE ACCOUNTS WE LOCATE

Winning the lawsuit is sometimes only half the battle. A determined judgment debtor can evade judgment enforcement and collections for years. In fact, a judgment will be valid for 10 years and can be valid even longer if it is renewed.

The first step in the collection process is simply to ask the debtor to pay. A letter demanding payment should be sent ten days after judgment has been entered in favor of the judgment creditor.

1. Ask the judgment debtor for payment and work with the debtor, if requested, to ascertain the viability of a payment plan or compromise on the basis of collectability;
2. If payment is not made or arranged for, attempt to locate the judgment debtor’s assets and sources of income.

If the above steps are insufficient to satisfy the judgment, it is apparent that further collection efforts are necessary. Seek professional assistance from a licensed PI that specializes in asset and judgment recovery to enforce collections and ensure payment. We aggressively employ our judgment enforcement methods, using every legal means available to attach/seize/garnish those assets to enforce your judgment collection. 

We are a licensed investigation agency that provides judgment collection services to judgment creditors, law firms, their attorney’s businesses, and private clients.  We operate in full compliance with debt collection laws and have made substantial investments in technology to provide our clients with the best-in-class access to relevant debtor information, IRS, Federal Trade Commission, and US Department of Labor Garnishment laws. 

Before you sue, ask yourself whether the person has any income or assets that could be used to pay your claim.  If the person does have income or assets or is likely to have some in the foreseeable future, it is more likely that you will be able to collect your money, but not without some effort. Pre-litigation asset searches are a preemptive tactic used to determine what assets or income may be seized in the event a judgment is ordered. Subsequent, information can be used to determine if the judicial venture is economically worth the effort. Evidence obtained during this process can be admissible in court and used at trial to prepare a better case.

A writ of attachment or writ of execution is a tool used to take debtor property, sell it, and apply the sales proceeds to your judgment. The steps in the process are:

• Ask the court for the writ, which tells the sheriff to pick up the debtor’s property and sell it;
• Serve or deliver the writ to the debtor. You may have to use a process server and post a bond to protect the sheriff’s office from being sued if any mistakes are made, such as taking someone else’s property;
• Pay costs such as storage while the sale is advertised;
• Collect payment after the sheriff completes the sale (costs are taken out of sales proceeds before you’re paid).

Depending on the state, the process can be complex, so you may want to use a private investigator who is an expert or an attorney, especially if real estate is involved. Certain property – such as the debtor’s home, a vehicle used for work transportation, welfare benefits and Social Security payments – can’t be seized and sold.

Seeking to enforce judgments will require additional economic resources and substantial effort from all parties involved when the assets lie outside the jurisdiction of origin. As a judgment collection investigation agency, we offer our services to judgment creditors and their counsel to domesticate Sister-State and Foreign Judgments to the state where the assets are located.

Jointly Owned Accounts – Rights and Limitations

When the debtor owns an account jointly with another individual who is not a spouse, the law usually presumes that both individuals have equal rights to funds held in that account. So, when a creditor attempts to garnish that account, it typically doesn’t have to investigate whether you contributed more money to the account than the co-owner. Unfortunately, for the non-debtor, this could mean that the money in their account could be garnished to pay for the co-owner’s debt, a debt that the non-debtor never owed. Laws vary on the extent to which creditors can garnish joint accounts. In some states, creditors can’t take more than half of the funds in a joint account. However, in other states — like Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia — creditors may be able to garnish the entire joint account. California law (CCP § 700.160(b)) allows a judgment creditor to collect money from the bank account in the name of the debtor’s spouse even when the debtor’s name is not on the account.

The New Jersey Multiple Party Deposit Account Act (“NJMPDAA”), N.J.S.A. § 17:16I-1, et seq., which governs “multiple party deposit accounts” (“MPDAs”), including joint bank accounts, provides in relevant part: Unless a contrary intent is manifested by the terms of the contract, or the deposit agreement, or there is other clear and convincing evidence of a different intent at the time the account is created:  a. A joint account belongs, during the lifetime of all parties, to the parties in proportion to the net contributions by each to the sums on deposit. In the absence of proof of net contributions, the account belongs in equal shares to all parties having a present right of withdrawal. 

We provide Nationwide Asset Search and Judgment Enforcement Judgment Collection Pre-judgment/Pre-litigation Asset Search Investigations throughout the US. Service conducted by a licensed Private Investigator providing services in Oklahoma City Oklahoma, Austin, Houston San Antonio Dallas Austin Fort Worth El Paso Arlington Corpus Christi, Texas, Salt Lake City West Valley City Provo West Jordan Orem Sandy Ogden St. George Utah,  Cheyenne Wyoming, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Denver, Boulder Colorado