Is this judgment collectible? The creditor's checklist

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The same material, read aloud and told more loosely than it is written. Nothing is said in it that this page does not also say.

Owner, read from the record first

First comes the question of whose name the property is in, and it is answered from the public record before anything else is paid for.

Land is reached through an act in a county. In Florida a judgment becomes a lien on land in a county when a certified copy is recorded in that county's official records or judgment lien record, provided an address for the lienholder is on it or recorded with it. Fla. Stat. 55.10¹. In New York, from the time a money judgment is docketed with the clerk of the county where the land sits, a later transfer of the debtor's interest is not effective against the creditor. CPLR 5203². Land in a second county needs a filing in that second county: a transcript of the docket is filed with the other clerk, who then dockets it under CPLR 5018³.

Florida keeps every recorded instrument in one series called the Official Records, with a register of each filing and an alphabetical index, direct and inverse, by the parties' names. Fla. Stat. 28.222⁴. That index is where the owner question is answered. And the record rewards being on it: an unrecorded conveyance or mortgage of Florida land is not good against creditors or later purchasers for value without notice under Fla. Stat. 695.01⁵, and in New York an unrecorded conveyance is void against a later good-faith purchaser for value whose own deed is recorded first under RPL 291⁶.

When the name on the record is a trustee, a company or a spouse, the owner question is not finished. It moves to how title is held, which the register names but does not explain. A deed can describe a relationship without proving one. That stop is where the pieces on trusts and on how a roll writes owners pick up.

Asset, what the law lets a creditor reach

Next comes what the debtor owns that a creditor may actually touch.

New York casts the net wide. Any property that could be assigned or transferred, present or future, vested or not, may be reached by a money judgment unless it is exempt. CPLR 5201(b)⁷. Florida lists the targets: lands and tenements, goods and chattels, equities of redemption and corporate stock are subject to levy and sale under execution. Fla. Stat. 56.061⁸. On the personal property side a Florida lien is made by filing a judgment lien certificate with the Department of State, once the judgment is final, the time to move for rehearing has lapsed, no rehearing motion is pending and no stay is in effect; it reaches the debtor's interest in personal property subject to execution and in the debtor's accounts and payment intangibles, with proceeds, but not fixtures, money, negotiable instruments, or mortgages. Fla. Stat. 55.202⁹.

What the record cannot show comes from post-judgment discovery. In New York a subpoena may be served on any person for all matter relevant to satisfying the judgment, at any time before it is satisfied or vacated. CPLR 5223¹⁰. In Florida the creditor becomes entitled to proceedings supplementary by motion and affidavit under Fla. Stat. 56.29(1)¹¹, and at the creditor's request the court must order the debtor to complete the fact information sheet within 45 days under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.560(b)¹².

One method is off the table entirely. Obtaining a financial institution's customer information about another person is a federal violation under 15 U.S.C. 6821(a)¹³, and so is asking someone to obtain it knowing that is how they will under 15 U.S.C. 6821(b). The shortcut to an account number is the one way of finding an account that can make the finder the defendant.

Claim, who stands ahead on each asset

Third comes the ranking of the other hands reaching for the same thing, because being owed money is not the same as being paid first.

Taxes go to the front in Florida. Property taxes are a first lien, superior to all other liens, on the property assessed, from January 1 of the year they were levied until paid or barred. Fla. Stat. 197.122(1)¹⁴. Among recorded instruments the register's own numbers set the order: an instrument is recorded, and notice to all persons, when the clerk affixes its consecutive register number, and the lower number has priority over a higher one in the same series. Fla. Stat. 695.11¹⁵. Florida personal property judgment liens rank by the date and time of day their certificates were filed under Fla. Stat. 55.202.

Rank decides who touches the money from a sale. In New York, after fees, expenses and taxes, the sheriff distributes real property sale proceeds to creditors who delivered executions before the sale, in the order of their judgments' priority, and pays any excess to the debtor. CPLR 5236(g)¹⁶. In Florida any surplus goes in order of priority to judgment lienholders whose liens have not lapsed under Fla. Stat. 56.27(2)(a)¹⁷.

What the statutes do not settle is what a buyer at an execution sale takes. A New York deed conveys the right, title and interest sold under CPLR 5236(f), and whether that comes subject to senior liens is not a question the CPLR answers here. No section here answers it for either state, and this page will not guess. Priority by recording date takes this stop on its own.

Exemption, what the law protects from the creditor

Fourth comes the question of what part of what is there the law puts out of reach, and it is the one that most often turns a promising file to nothing.

Florida's homestead is the hardest wall. Its Constitution exempts a natural person's homestead from forced sale under process of any court and provides that no judgment, decree or execution is a lien on it, outside the listed exceptions for taxes, purchase-and-improvement obligations, and labor on the realty. Fla. Const. art. X, sec. 4¹⁸. Size is measured in acreage, up to one hundred sixty acres outside a municipality and one-half acre inside one, under the same clause. What dollar limit, if any, applies is not something the text answers, and this page states none. Florida homestead, and what a roll shows about it stays on that one stop.

New York draws the homestead line in dollars that move. Its county figures written into CPLR 5206(a)¹⁹ are $150,000, $125,000 and $75,000 by region, but those are base amounts: CPLR 5253(a)²⁰ adjusts the exemption every three years, so the amount in force is not the amount printed in the statute. An exemption is not lost because the home is worth more than the line; the lien of a judgment attaches to the surplus under CPLR 5206(d).

Retirement savings and wages are protected in both states on their own terms. Florida exempts IRS-preapproved retirement funds from all creditor claims, subject to the exceptions in paragraph (d) and unless a plan is later finally determined not to be tax-exempt, under Fla. Stat. 222.21(2)(a)²¹1., and New York treats IRAs, Keogh and corporate plans and the like as trusts created by someone other than the debtor under CPLR 5205(c)(2)²². On wages, a Florida head of family's disposable earnings of $750 a week or less are exempt under Fla. Stat. 222.11(2)(a)²³; New York exempts ninety percent of earnings rendered within sixty days before, and at any time after, an income execution is delivered, under CPLR 5205(d)(2), and caps the income execution at ten percent under CPLR 5231(b)²⁴; and federal law holds garnishment of a week's disposable earnings to the lesser of 25 percent or the amount above thirty times the minimum wage under 15 U.S.C. 1673(a)²⁵.

Transfer, what left the debtor's hands

Last comes property that has already gone, and whether the law lets a creditor pull it back.

Both states share a core rule. A transfer made with actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud any creditor can be undone, whether the claim arose before or after it. Fla. Stat. 726.105(1)(a)²⁶; DCL 273(a)(1)²⁷. Intent is rarely stated, so the statutes list badges a court may weigh, among other factors: a transfer to an insider, the debtor keeping possession or control, concealment, a suit brought or threatened before the transfer, a transfer of substantially all the debtor's assets. Fla. Stat. 726.105(2); DCL 273(b). Neither statute says how many badges are needed or that any one proves intent.

A payoff waits in the asset itself. Once a judgment is held, the creditor may, if the court so orders, levy execution on the transferred asset or its proceeds. Fla. Stat. 726.108(2)²⁸; DCL 276(b)²⁹. What was moved, or what it became, is reachable once the court says so.

What each answer costs

Cost here is mostly time and process, not a price list. What follows is the process each question needs.

Owner and the recorded claims are free to read: they sit in the public record, indexed by name, under Fla. Stat. 28.222 in Florida. Discovery answers come on the statute's clock. In New York an information subpoena is answered in writing under oath within seven days of receipt under CPLR 5224(a)(3)³⁰, and the person answering gets no fee under CPLR 5224(b). Florida's fact information sheet is due within 45 days of the order under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.560(b), and the costs of proceedings supplementary are taxed against the debtor, with reasonable attorney fees that may be, under Fla. Stat. 56.29(8).

A transfer question costs a claim, not a question. In Florida a chapter 726 claim in proceedings supplementary is initiated by a supplemental complaint under Fla. Stat. 56.29(9). In New York the creditor carries the burden of proving the claim by a preponderance of the evidence under DCL 273(c). Reaching a New York homestead worth more than its exemption takes its own special proceeding for a sale, in the county where the home sits, under CPLR 5206(e).

The sale itself runs on published notice with real lead time. Florida advertises the sale once a week for 4 successive weeks under Fla. Stat. 56.21³¹. New York posts notice at least fifty-six days before the sale, and the sheriff serves the listed creditors and lienholders at least thirty days ahead, under CPLR 5236(c).

When to stop

Stopping is the reader's decision, made against the reader's own file. What the page can show is where the clocks run out and where a wall drops across the whole effort.

Liens die on schedule. In Florida a land lien lasts 10 years from recording under Fla. Stat. 55.10, can be extended for another 10 by rerecording with a current-address affidavit under the same section, but never past 20 years from entry under Fla. Stat. 55.081³². In New York a lien runs 10 years from filing of the judgment-roll under CPLR 5203, and a renewal judgment may be sought in the year before that runs out under CPLR 5014³³. On the personal property side a Florida lien lapses 5 years after filing under Fla. Stat. 55.204³⁴, and only one second lien can follow it, after which the door closes under the same section.

Transfer claims have their own windows: in both states an actual-intent claim must be brought within 4 years of the transfer or, if later, within 1 year after it was or could reasonably have been discovered. Fla. Stat. 726.110(1)³⁵; DCL 278(a)³⁶. Against all of this, a bankruptcy petition drops a wall. Filing operates as a stay of the acts listed, applicable to all entities, under 11 U.S.C. 362(a)³⁷, and those acts include enforcement of a pre-bankruptcy judgment against the debtor or estate property under 11 U.S.C. 362(a)(2). Discharge then voids a judgment to the extent it determines personal liability on a discharged debt under 11 U.S.C. 524(a)(1)³⁸, and a debtor may avoid a judicial lien to the extent it impairs an exemption under 11 U.S.C. 522(f)(1)³⁹.

While all of that runs, the judgment keeps earning interest: in Florida until it is paid under Fla. Stat. 55.03(2)⁴⁰, in New York from the date of entry under CPLR 5003⁴¹. The answer at each stop is a fact about the file, not a verdict on the judgment. Which way an empty search cuts is its own question, taken up in what an empty result actually means.