My company helps judgment creditors (at no cost or any obligation) to quickly find the right judgment buyers or judgment recovery experts. More than 99% of the “complaints” we get, come in the form of two basic types of questions:

1) Why can’t you find me a judgment buyer? Almost always, the answer is that they over-estimated the cash-upfront value of their judgment. Buyers do not care about anyone’s situation or selling price suggestions or demands; they only care about your judgment debtor’s available assets and which state.

2) Thank you for finding a judgment recovery “expert” for me so quickly, but it has been (e.g., 21) days now, and they have not recovered a dime yet, so can you please find me someone else?

The rest of this article answers these types of questions. This article is my opinion, and not legal advice. I am a judgment expert, and am not a lawyer. If you ever need any legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact a lawyer.

With most judgments, judgment recovery is slow or impossible; for almost the same reasons that it is impossible to find buyers for judgments when the prices demanded for them are too much for their judgment debtor’s situation. Even the fastest judgment recovery expert in the nation can only be as fast as the civil courts and Sheriff departments.

Even in ideal situations, it can take months for courts to respond, and Sheriffs to respond or make payments in post-judgment recovery proceedings. In an ideal situation, it might take three months before any money is sent to the creditor. If the debtor’s bankruptcy filing is involved, any recovered money is at risk, and not “safe” for up to three more months.

Very few judgment situations are ideal. If your situation was ideal, you would have already been repaid long ago. Most judgments are tough and are recovered slowly (if at all), and any money that might be recovered, usually comes in bits and chunks over time.

Most debtors have no available assets showing. Most judgment enforcers do not waste money on poor debtors, or waste vast amounts of money to attempt to undo fraudulent transfers, unless both the judgment amount and the potential assets at stake are large.

When there is no available assets showing; after paying for a bank, property, and job search and finding nothing; most enforcers will put the judgment case file in their file cabinet, or in some folder on their computer. Then, they set their computer or calendar to remind them to check the debtor’s situation, every (e.g., six months or year).

If you want your judgment back after your enforcer has spent money, after some negotiation, and perhaps even some compensation (for example, reimbursing the judgment enforcer’s costs of recording liens etc, because when the judgment gets returned, those will belong to you), many enforcers will consider returning your judgment to you.

However, if you then find another judgment enforcer; usually, you will get the same dismal results. While there are exceptions, cases where one enforcer made no progress and the next then gets results, this does not happen very often. Judgment recovery is not guaranteed, and almost always measured in months and years.