Judgment liens in Alabama

What to file, and where

Start the lien with a filing act, and the office is one most creditors do not expect.

In Alabama a judgment becomes a lien when a certificate of the judgment has been filed. That act carries the lien, not the day a court entered the judgment. Ala. Code 6-9-211¹ runs on the filing, not the entry. No certificate, no lien to enforce.

Filing goes to the judge of probate. Under Ala. Code 6-9-210², the owner of a judgment from an Alabama court, or from a federal court held in Alabama, files a certificate of the clerk or register of the entering court in the probate office of any Alabama county. And the filing does work beyond creating the lien: Ala. Code 6-9-211 makes it notice to all persons that the lien exists.

What it reaches

This lien is not confined to land, which surprises people who expect a real property record.

An Alabama judgment lien reaches all property of the defendant that is subject to levy and sale under execution, in the county where the certificate is filed. All such property, Ala. Code 6-9-211 says, not only real property. So the certificate in the probate office does more than a reader might read into the word probate.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

Ten years, measured from the judgment, with one narrow way the clock keeps running on a single fight.

The lien continues for 10 years after the date of the judgment. That span, under Ala. Code 6-9-211, runs from the judgment itself rather than from the day the certificate was filed.

One thing holds the lien open past the 10 years, and only one. If an action to enforce or foreclose the lien is begun within the 10 years and is still pending when they end, and a lis pendens notice is filed in the probate office of the county where the property is, the lien continues as to the property claimed in that action and may be enforced there as if the 10 years had not passed. That continuation is narrow. It holds only the property fought over in that case, and it is not a renewal of the lien generally.

Whether an Alabama judgment can be revived after it goes stale, and whether reviving it does anything to the 10-year lien clock, is a separate question. This page does not cover revival and will not guess at it. For the shape of that question across states, see how long a judgment lien lasts, and how to renew it.

Land in another county

This lien is a county creature, and the certificate anchors it county by county.

The lien arises in the county where the certificate of judgment is filed. Ala. Code 6-9-211 says so plainly: a lien in the county where filed. The owner may file a certificate in the probate office of any Alabama county under Ala. Code 6-9-210, so the reach is a matter of where you file. One certificate filed in Jefferson does its work there. Property in Mobile waits for a filing in Mobile.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

Here a resident's home is shielded from levy and sale under Ala. Code 6-10-2³, up to a stated value and a stated acreage.

An Alabama resident's homestead, with its improvements and appurtenances, is exempt from levy and sale under execution or other process for the collection of debts, up to $15,000 in value and 160 acres in area. Both limits sit in Ala. Code 6-10-2. Whether that dollar figure has been adjusted since the section was last amended is not something this page can confirm.

Protection runs to the extent of the interest the resident holds, during that resident's life and occupancy, and, if the resident leaves a surviving spouse and a minor child or children, or either, during the life of the surviving spouse and the minority of the children. Under Ala. Code 6-10-2 a mobile home or similar dwelling is deemed a homestead when it is the principal place of residence of the person claiming the exemption. And where a husband and wife jointly own a homestead, each may claim the exemption separately, to the same extent and value as an unmarried individual. For how other states draw the line, see homestead protection, state by state.

Where the records live

One office carries the whole system, and knowing its name is most of the search.

Certificates of judgment go to the judge of probate, and that is where the lien lives. The office is named in Ala. Code 6-9-210, and Ala. Code 6-9-211 makes the filing there notice to all persons of the lien. To search an Alabama judgment lien is to search the probate records of the county where the property sits. For the same filing question in every other state, see how a judgment becomes a lien, in all fifty states and DC.