Los Angeles, with all its diversity, is an interesting city for many of the same reasons that big cities are- but perhaps the most unique part of it is Hollywood. And, enforcement of judgment in Hollywood- even more interesting still- so interesting in fact, that it warrants its own article, in my opinion.

Now, Collection Law is the same in Los Angeles and Hollywood as it is in the less glitzy and glamorous parts of the State. But, we enforce judgements against people- and ultimately therefore, judgement enforcement is about people. And let’s face it- the people here- Hollywood in particular- are just not the same as people anywhere else, and a Collection Lawyer in Los Angeles should be able to capitalize on this knowledge, to his the benefit of his clients.

When it comes to Hollywood and the movie industry in general, there are a few things that should always be remembered:

(1) Nobody can hide what they are doing, it’s all over the internet.

One of the tricky parts of judgment collection is finding out where debtors get income from. Many debtors, knowing there is a judgment out there against them- would never brag about their place of employment on Facebook, or LinkedIn. Unfortunately, for debtors trying to evade their creditors in Hollywood, there are multiple sites – IMDB.COM being probably the biggest one- where one can find out what just about anyone who is anyone in Hollywood is up to, with a few mouse clicks. And that is how they want it to be, if they are a Hollywood debtor– they ned the publicity. The first thing I always do when I have a Hollywood Debtor is look them up on IMDB and see what they have going on, so I know where to go after the money. There are multiple other sources also (Hollywood Reporter, Hollywood Insider).

(2) Reputation is everything in Hollywood.

Many judgment debtors are die-hard debt-evaders, and can take a fair amount of legal pressure– and some are smart, and make a game out of staying a step ahead of Creditors. Regardless of your debtors particular character thowever, every debtor in Hollywood has one serious weak spot– and that is his or her need to be perceived well by others- In Hollywood, reputation is everything.

In one case, I asked a debtor, who had already had his car repossessed and who was on the verge of his foreclosure sale– a very honest question “Rather than go through this, why don’t you just do bankrupt and be done with it?”  His Answer: “Because if I did that, I’d never work in this town again.”

A savvy collection lawyer can take advantage of this situation by seeking financial discovery from third parties, such as partners and colleagues of the debtor. As a general practice, this can be expensive and troublesome, so is often considered not worth it. However, for debtors whose reputations are important to them, the mere hint of having business partners and colleagues as part of the legal proceedings can be an incentive in and of itself, to start paying the debt.

(3) Even if they seem broke, People in Hollywood have access to money that most others do not.

Hundreds of millions (perhaps even billions) of dollars per year flow through Hollywood, and a large part of that is venture capital money- money that is just thrown out there by investors, to fund movies and television. Many people in Hollywood, even if they themselves appear to be flat broke- can often come up with money in ways that most other debtors could only dream of.

In one case, I had a debtor – an actor/producer who was down on his luck and looking all but judgment proof, come up with over $200,000.00 in cash to satisfy a judgment, after we went after him. Discovery into his affairs and his lifestyle made it quite clear– he did not have the money himself — but he obtained funding from somewhere as part of a deal, and paid us off, when we applied the right pressure. The debtor with the repossession and the foreclosure, who was worried about “never working in this town again” – after we got after him, he somehow paid also.

Ultimately, Los Angeles and Hollywood are places all their own, and the industries in these places make Judgment Collection in Los Angeles and Hollywood, especially in the movie business, a unique area of expertise. Everyone in these industries, from writers, actors, producers, to sound engineers, set-builders, and casting directors- each has their own place in the big picture, and each receives money in certain ways, and should be enforced against in certain ways.

The two most important principles that will serve anyone well against Hollywood debtors are: (1) Reputation is everything; and (2) If the he really really tries, he can probably come up with the money to pay you something (within reason- obviously this isn’t true all the time).

Richard Evanns, founder of The Evanns Collection Firm was born and raised in Hollywood, and our law firm has handled multiple matters involving debtors in Hollywood and related industries. If you have such a collection judgment / enforcement matter, we would be happy to talk to with you about it. Phone consultations are free of course.

Sure, a competent judgment enforcement lawyer knows the law and has the knowledge and experience to collect your judgment. That is certainly a good reason to retain one- but there are also personal, human-psychological reasons for it as well. Consider this example:

A client, we’ll call her Jennifer, retained us for collection of her divorce judgment. Her ex, we’ll call him Mike, owed her approximately $25k from their divorce judgment. She is an extremely nice, sweet person, and she has some bad stories to tell about Mike, and also some stories of Mike’s fairly substantial assets, income, and employment.

I went after Mike full force. We levied his bank accounts, came after his business, his wages, his stock accounts, and subpoenaed him into Court to answer questions about his finances and sources of income in front of a judge.

All these efforts yielded very little, and when I met Mike in Court and went through piles of his bank and financial records, it became clear that the years after the divorce had not been kind to Mike. He had no more stock accounts and had lost the business. He was partially disabled due to an accident (he had a limp), getting by doing small jobs for clients he’d serviced for many years. He had about $300.00 in the bank at any one time.

“I’m sorry, I ended up being such a loser, and wasted all your time. A few years ago it wouldn’t have been like this, but now this is how it is.” he said to me. And it was obvious he meant every word.

The judgment against Mike turned out to be uncollectable- I knew it, Mike knew it, and Mike knew that I knew it. I explained to him that it was my professional obligation to keep after him on this debt and collect what I could until he at least went on a payment plan.

Ultimately, after some phone calls, Mike got his parents to help him out by paying a fairly significant sum to settle the debt. He came into my office with the money and said to me:

“The only reason I am paying this is because you are on the case. I’d never pay Jennifer a penny, she doesn’t deserve it.”

So what happened here? How did my client end up getting paid by a guy who had no money?

For starters, Mike is a law abiding guy; he valued his good credit, and he knew he owed the money- but, he disliked and resented Jennifer, and did not want to pay her. What Jennifer did by hiring counsel was to put a new face on the debt- someone Mike liked and actually wanted to pay. Mike actually felt guilty about not paying us, unlike Jennifer who he thought didn’t deserve a dime. Because of this, he went the extra mile to settle the debt, by doing something no judge in the country could force him to do: He actually borrowed the money.

The moral of the story: Each debtor and debt is different and must be handled differently. Some debtors are habitual scammers and debt avoiders who need to be treated mercilessly, others are normal people with a personal grudge or resentment, who need someone to bring them a bit of understanding. In the latter case, just putting a new face on the debt is half the trick of getting it paid.

Attorneys in this business need to have perceptive ability and a human touch. There are a million different kinds of debtors and debts – and many are only collected by “hardball”- but sometimes, treating someone who is decent and respectable with decency and respect will accomplish what no judge or court ever could.

What is Judgment Domestication ? Do I need it, and what does it take to get a Sister State Judgment? Should I domesticate my judgement to California? These are questions I get fairly often, and this article should help to answer them.

What is judgment domestication and/or a Sister State Judgment?

The scenario happens all too often: Plaintiff obtains a judgment, and at some point either before the judgment enforcement begins (or sometimes during) the defendant/judgment debtor picks up and leaves the State, likely rendering judgment collection almost impossible in the State where the judgment was issued.

Unfortunately for creditors, judgment enforcement laws are all different depending on the state, and you cannot enforce any judgment against a debtor in California unless it is a California judgment. And whether it’s the climate or the movie stars or the beaches, I cannot tell you, but I do know debtors love running away to California.

Fortunately for Creditors, there is a process by which an out of state creditor can “move” (or “domesticate”) their out of state judgment to California, and start enforcing here- it is called the Sister State Judgment process. The judgment must be domesticated (or “Sister-Stated”) to the courthouse local to where the debtor resides- meaning the debtor must be tracked down, and the domestication papers filed in the Debtors local County Court.

Because the U.S. Constitution requires that States recognize the judgments and decrees of other States, once the domestication process is started, there are very few defenses that the debtor has to prevent the entry of the sister state judgment (and the ones that do exist, we are prepared to deal with). Once the domestication process is completed, the creditor will have a Sister-State-Judgment- which is a full fledged California judgment,  enforceable just as if the judgment originated in California in the first place.

Should I Domesticate my Judgment to California?

As with most questions, the answer to this question is “It depends.” Sister stating a judgment is cheap, as far as legal services go- but the economics of the situation still need to be considered. If a judgment is totally uncollectable (debtor on public assistance, in jail, etc), it may not be worth any money at all to domesticate. However, if the debtor has assets of any kind, it may be a good idea to domesticate because that allows a creditor to put liens down on assets in CA. Judgment liens from out of state will not generally reach assets in CA.

Another factor to consider is whether the creditor wants to “tip the debtor off.” The debtor will get notice when the creditor domesticates the judgment. He might then not buy that new car in his own name, but may put it in his mothers or his brothers name instead. On the other hand, a creditor who waits to domesticate runs the risk that later creditors might get to the debtors assets first- People who have a judgment against them usually end up with more than one– and the general rule of enforcing on debtor assets is “first come, first served”- so if a creditor down the road gets a lien on the debtors house before you do because you decided to wait to domstication, even if their debt came later, your debt is forever behind theirs in line, when it comes to getting money from the debtors house.

So, as with most things in life, even this seemingly simple thing is not as simple as it seems. Luckily, we here at Evanns Collection Law offices pick up our phones, and will talk to you about your domestication situation and your debtor, and give you our best and most honest opinion on what you should do- and won’t charge you anything for it.

Should you choose to use our firm to domesticate your judgment to California, we charge one FLAT FEE – (no hidden charges or coming back later for additional money) – and for that we perform the following services:

1. Skip trace your debtor anywhere in California;
2. File the proper papers and documents in the appropriate Court (anywhere in CA);
3. Serve the Debtor anywhere in CA (we have process servers that can go anywhere in the State)
4. Put down a real estate lien on any property in the County where the Debtor lives; and
5. File a personal property lien with the CA Secretary of State, which reaches other personal property of the debtor.

We do all for one very reasonable  flat fee. Feel free to give us a call to learn more. Evanns Collection Law Firm, 213 – 404 – 1002

Some of the most frustrated potential judgment enforcement client calls I get are those who have outstanding spousal support and spousal support orders. These clients have often been through nasty divorces, have already paid tons to an attorney and have barely been getting by—only to have the debtor refuse to pay what is owed. Often County Support Enforcement has attempted to collect and failed. This happens, quite literally, ALL THE TIME, when support debtors are self-employed. The usual scenario is- your ex owns a business and controls the payroll. When it comes time to pay support, your ex’s wages have been reduced to almost nothing. Mysteriously, his/her lifestyle seems to be fine– yet you are getting nothing. This can be a very frustrating situation.

Well, for these clients, we have good news! Not only can we enforce support orders using all the same remedies as we use in enforcing civil judgments, but there are actually MAJOR advantages and additional remedies that we have in enforcing support judgments and orders as opposed to your “normal” civil judgments. These include:

* Spousal & Child Support Judgments cannot be discharged in bankruptcy

* Support Judgment garnishments can reach up to 50% of a debtor’s income (as opposed to typical civil judgments which reach only 25%)

* Debtors who don’t pay support judgments can be held in contempt of court, fined by the court, and ultimately, sent to jail if they don’t pay.

* Support garnishments take priority over other garnishments

Example: Your ex-spouse is already being garnished by the IRS, and they owe you back child support. Our garnishment takes priority over the IRS. No other type of debt takes precedence over IRS debt!

This is just to name a few.

So, if you are owed support, and your ex is somehow earning less than ever but also somehow eating at all the good places, driving the nice car, and going to the nice destinations, while you are not getting paid- take heart!

Not only are we experts in enforcement and collection of spousal support and child support, but we do are very best to take cases for little or zero upfront cost to you. Telephone calls are free and only take a few minutes. Don’t wait any longer- give us a call us at 213-404-1002 for a free consult.