Rob is correct, having been in the collection field for almost 30 years, I have spent quite a bit of time working in the legal system. If your contract has a provision for attorneys fees and interest you can demand those in your pleadings. I suspect that the attorney took the case on a contingency, if it is more than 25% - 30% then the car owner may have gotten a bad deal.
A judgment is simply a legal rendering that money is owed, it does nothing to force the defendant to pay. This is where I have the most fun, trying clever methods to collect. Debtor interrogatories are usually good, the Commissioner in Chancery can make them empty their pockets right there.
Of course they are under oath when they respond (that is why it pays to have a court reporter) and I once had the Commissioner stop a guy I had a $90K judgment against and tell him he was going to be held for contempt if he didn't come clean (I was able to find an IRA and grab $58K, the government also had a judgment and never collected). Even better is when they ignore the summons and get picked up on a habeas and cool their heels in jail. [}
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I have garnished wages, bank accounts and income from rental property, done levies, grabbed tax refunds, etc. While in Virginia "tools of the trade" are exempt, they are fairly narrowly defined. I would do a levy and once the guy knows you can sell his livlihood out from underneath him, he might be induced to pay.
I didn't get the name "Guido" for nothing!
As an attorney I worked with once told me "You are the best paralawyer I know".
A judgment is simply a legal rendering that money is owed, it does nothing to force the defendant to pay. This is where I have the most fun, trying clever methods to collect. Debtor interrogatories are usually good, the Commissioner in Chancery can make them empty their pockets right there.
Of course they are under oath when they respond (that is why it pays to have a court reporter) and I once had the Commissioner stop a guy I had a $90K judgment against and tell him he was going to be held for contempt if he didn't come clean (I was able to find an IRA and grab $58K, the government also had a judgment and never collected). Even better is when they ignore the summons and get picked up on a habeas and cool their heels in jail. [}]I have garnished wages, bank accounts and income from rental property, done levies, grabbed tax refunds, etc. While in Virginia "tools of the trade" are exempt, they are fairly narrowly defined. I would do a levy and once the guy knows you can sell his livlihood out from underneath him, he might be induced to pay.
I didn't get the name "Guido" for nothing!
As an attorney I worked with once told me "You are the best paralawyer I know".
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