Suppose you were to buy an appliance that turns out to be a lemon…you go the usual route of allowing the mfg. to make several repairs…and when that fails, you decide to sue. Because of the low dollar value of the claim, small claims court is the only option. So you file…and giant corporation “X” (naturally) ignores you. You win by default-what next? Will they just ignore any judgement granted by the court? Have you just wasted time and money for nothing?
If you have a judgment, you can enforce it by filing a motion in the state where the company is located. In some cases it may be a little more difficult if you’re enforcing a default judgment. (For example, New York does not automatically recognize out-of-state default judgments; you have to file a motion for summary judgment in lieu of a complaint, and must prove that the defendant has received proper service of the original judgment and other stuff.)
Once that’s done, the court can seize assets of the defendant to pay the judgment.
For a small-claims case, it may not be worth it to go to all the trouble. But people have certainly done it as a matter of principle.
Judgements entered in one jurisdiction can be and often are executed in other jurisdiction and I am sure that the US has a plethora of rules about executing out of state judgements. In your OP example I will add a note of caution that courts are a bit vary of executing default or ex parte judgements.
Large corporations are usually registered with your local state. For example, I just checked 2 random corporations that I know are out-of-state. Amazon.com and Ford Motor have an agent in Massachusetts to receive legal documents. So check with your state department of corporations. I once sued a Kansas phone company in in Massachusetts small claims, but they did get the documents and they did defend themselves at trial. I received less than I had hoped, but at least I got something.
Another good trick is to find someone in your home state that owes corporation X money and serve that person with a “suggestee execution” that basically says: “Corporation X owes me money. You owe corporation X money. The court, by this piece of paper, says to pay ME the money you owe corporation X and it will still count as a credit on your account.”
Depending on the corporation, that may be more cost effective than “domesticating” the judgment in an out of state court. A local attorney charges approximately 50% of any recover to domesticate a judgment.
When I google “suggestee execution,” I get no hits outside of West Virginia.
Ah, that’s the state I live in. They are called Writs of Assignment in some other states, but every state has something similar.
A friend of mine sued a US airline (forget which one) after they utterly ignored his claim which would have been for out-of-pocket expenses under $100. So he went into a Quebec small claims court, which they ignored and asked for $1000. There was a default judgment for $1000. His son, a lawyer, threatened to get a bailiff put a seal on an airplane. They paid the $1000. I don’t know how this would have played out with airport security.
A popular way to enforce judgments on out-of-jurisdiction companies is to impound assets that they have in your jurisdiction. This guy had the local sheriff seize a Bank of America to enforce a local judgment for legal fees.