Obtaining a judgment in a lawsuit does not mean the battle is over. Obtaining payment (“satisfaction”) of a judgment can be more difficult than winning the lawsuit. The Law Firm of Bernard D’Orazio, P.C., provides its clients with aggressive, resourceful, and persistent representation collecting and enforcing judgments. We receive and accept referrals of judgment enforcement matters from clients, lawyers, and law firms throughout the United States and from other countries.

Process of Judgment Enforcement

In some cases, it is possible to file a foreign judgment in New York without the necessity of commencing a lawsuit. In others, such as where a judgment was entered on the defendant’s default and complete failure to appear, a New York lawsuit to obtain recognition (“full faith and credit”) of the out-of-state judgment will be necessary.

We believe that one of the keys to successful judgment enforcement is research. We comb public records and use our access to on-line data bases to locate judgment debtors and their assets and income. We retain also outside investigators where necessary.

Judgment Enforcement Techniques

Judgment enforcement proceedings can include the following steps:

• Asset searches and public record research;
• Discovery proceedings to locate assets;
• Commencing proceedings to challenge fraudulent conveyances;
• Subpoenas of business and bank records;
• Filing liens and restraining financial accounts;
• Working with other collection lawyers in other jurisdictions who are part of our nationwide network, The National List of Attorneys (www.nationallist.com).

For more information, please contact us to schedule an appointment or for a no-obligation review of your case.