The mallet and brass scales are placed on the table in the lawyer's office for decorative purposes and are a symbol of justice in court decisions.
So many things in our daily lives are subject to expiration dates. Just about every item in the refrigerator has an expiration date. Our health club memberships expire, too. They need to be renewed. Even in the world of civil litigation, expiration dates apply.
If you need evidence, look no further than a money judgment. In nearly every state, money judgments are subject to statutes of limitation. Such statutes apply to enforcement, not the liability determined by the original court case.
Judgment Collectors, a judgment collection agency based in Salt Lake City, Utah, says the statute of limitations in most states is 7-10 years. Let us assume 7 years for the purposes of illustration. Exactly 7 years from the date the county clerk records a monetary judgment, it expires.
The Implications of Expiration
If a judgment is not fully collected within the statute of limitations, it expires. What does that mean? It means a lot of things, according to Judgment Collectors. If a judgment is allowed to expire:
1. It Becomes Unenforceable and Ineffective
An expired judgment is unenforceable by court-sanctioned methods. This does not mean that a creditor could not continue trying to collect using standard collection procedures. But once a judgment expires, things like wage garnishment and property seizure are off the table.
2. Ongoing Enforcement Procedures Must Cease
If a creditor has already initiated court-sanctioned enforcement efforts, ongoing procedures related to those efforts must cease on expiration. For example, wage garnishment immediately stops once a judgment expires.
3. All Liens Are Extinguished
Judgment and property liens are fairly common collection tools sanctioned by civil courts. But at expiration, all existing liens are immediately extinguished. Attached property is no longer affected by the liens.
4. The Judgment Cannot Be Revived
For all intents and purposes, allowing a judgment to expire is its death knell. Once expired, a judgment cannot be revived. Any attempts to collect thereafter must be limited to standard collection procedures. Most judgment creditors do not even bother at that point.
Renewing Prior to Expiration
If there is any good news here, it is the fact that judgment creditors in most states don’t have to allow unpaid judgments to expire. Most states allow renewal prior to the original expiration date. But filing for renewal must take place before expiration. Even if renewal is not granted until after the expiration date, a creditor still must file before the established date.
States differ in how they authorize renewal. Some states renew for the same amount of time as the original statute of limitations. Others limit renewal to just 5 years. Furthermore, some states allow unlimited renewals while others only allow one.
Time Passes Too Quickly
Although it might seem that 7-10 years is plenty of time to collect a monetary judgment, the truth is that time passes too quickly in the judgment collection game. Everything about the process of enforcement is subject to numerous time constraints and delays. So it’s not abnormal to watch many years go by before actually getting paid.
Time is the enemy in judgment collection. It works against creditors and in favor of debtors. For that reason alone, it’s really important that judgment creditors pay attention to expiration dates. Debtors certainly do.
Creditors should never assume they have plenty of time. Rather, it is better to adopt an attitude of being up against the clock with little time to spare. A judgment’s expiration date is always looming. So collecting with plenty of time to spare is a goal worth striving for. Get paid quickly and expiration dates don’t matter.
