This may sound like a rant for the pit but please read though it. Much of it is to preemptively address some of the suggestions I may get.
Mrs. Cad has a legal judgement for over $70,000 in back child support from her first husband in Los Angeles County. He, of course, has refused to pay for years but we have good evidence that he came into money within the last couple of years - for example last year he took a vacation for three to Hawaii via first class twice. We suspect it is from an inheritance.
Go to court? The judges don’t care. Despite evidence of his job (he claims he doesn’t work) and other evidence, the Judge says, “Well he says he doesn’t have a job.” and we’re out the money for our attorney. Besides, she has the judgement in hand - she simply want to collect. No family-law attorney wants the case.
The DA? Technically he should be held on criminal charges for non-payment, but the DA’s office doesn’t care. If you’ve ever tried to collect child support in LA County you would realize the ludicrousness of going through them.
The county? The last appointment Mrs. Cad was told to take the high road and give the ex a letter absolving him of the debt (even I know enough to know that this would not be legal as child support debt cannot be forgiven by a parent). The supervisor said that she should retain an attorney and they would give the attorney the paperwork (including the accounting of the back support) but they would not give it to her. Incidently, the county no longer goes to court on the behalf of parents owed money.
So what do we do? We know there is money there to be gotten. I thought a personal injury attorney thinking that they specialize in getting $ in lawsuits from people that don’t want to pay plus he/her wouldn’t need to know family law - that part is already done and many will work for a percentage.
Are there collection companies that specialize in this? Some other alternative we havn’t thought of?
I sure hope there are. These collection agencies can get the court to pull the money out of a bank account to pay old credit cards and such. I can’t imagine why this might be more difficult.
The number of attorneys who practice in the field of getting dollars in lawsuits from people that do want to pay is so close to zero that I think they can be safely ignored.
Categorically false. There are hundreds of attorneys in NY alone who do nothing but collect debts. Saint Cad, there are attorneys in CA who specialize in exactly this. I don’t know what CA state law is like, but in many states you can freeze the accounts of the debtor and eventually withdraw the funds from them.
“The number of attorneys who practice in the field of getting dollars in lawsuits from people that do want to pay is so close to zero that I think they can be safely ignored.”
I’ve heard that the companies who do this sort of collection take about a third of the money as their fee. Now, this might seem steep, and obviously mileages will vary, but if there’s no other way to get some money out of this guy, two-thirds of $70,000 (about $43,000) is more than 100% of $0 ($0). If I were in this sort of situation, and had tried everything else, I’d probably at least consider this sort of service.
I am flabbergasted at the incompetence and uncaring attitude that’s reported by the OP.
Collection on debts is a different area of the law and involves different skills, with a variety of procedural mechanisms to discover assets and collect on the debt. That may be why the family law attorneys aren’t interested in it - outside their skill sets.
For example, in many jurisdictions, you have the right to examine the debtor under oath for the purpose of discovering all his assets, with the right to compel production of financial documents. Whether that’s available in this case would depend on the law of your jurisdiction, which I don’t know anything about and can’t express any opinions about.
Can you get a referral to a lawyer who specialises in creditor-debtor work, either from a family law attorney or from the local bar association?
Now that you mention this, I remember reading about the Governor’s budget one year. There’s a line item in the California budget for child support enforcement. This line item expenditure is actually a net gain for the state because for every dollar spent on child support enforcement, the state saves money on welfare programs. So, check it out.
A judgment debtor’s exam is an examination of a judgment debtor (him) by the judgment creditor (her), in court, under oath. The legal shorthand for this is an OX (“oh-ex”).
You go get an OX court order and serve it on him. If he does not appear, you get a bench warrant. If he appears, he is sworn in and has to answer your questions about his assets and finances. Then, it’s up to you go get those assets before he can move them. For example, if he identifies a bank account, you need someone to get a bank levy out to that bank while he’s sitting in the OX so he can’t close the account before you can get to it. If he has money in his pocket at the OX, you get can a turnover order to make him give it to you.
Just beware of those private collections companies. I don’t know enough to say much about them except there are articles like this. Seriously, check out the forum I linked to. They will know what to do and I’ve seen threads there about private collectors as well. If you went that route, they can probably recommend a good one.
