Judgment liens in West Virginia

What to file, and where

The judgment itself makes the lien. What you file decides whether it holds against a buyer.

Every money judgment rendered in West Virginia is a lien on the defendant's real estate at or after the date of the judgment, with one exception. One confessed in vacation is a lien only from the time of day at which it is confessed. W. Va. Code 38-3-6¹ carves it out. Hour by hour, not day by day.

Judgments rendered in open court can reach back further. Under W. Va. Code 38-3-6, such a judgment is a lien from the start of the term at which it was rendered, so long as the case was in a condition for judgment on the first day of that term. So the lien date and the stamp date are not always the same thing.

What it reaches

What the lien reaches is not limited to what the defendant owns on the day of judgment.

The lien reaches all the real estate the defendant owns or is entitled to, and it follows the defendant into real estate acquired afterward. Property the defendant later becomes possessed of or entitled to is bound too. W. Va. Code 38-3-6 says so. Buy land next year and the lien was already waiting there.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

The lien lives as long as the judgment does, but a separate ten-year rule protects a certain buyer.

This lien continues as long as the judgment remains valid and enforceable and has not been released or otherwise discharged. W. Va. Code 38-3-6 ties the two together, so keeping the lien alive means keeping the judgment alive. For how that compares across states, see how long a judgment lien lasts.

There is a ten-year wrinkle that catches creditors. Under W. Va. Code 38-3-7², a docketed judgment stops being a lien after 10 years from its date against a purchaser for value without notice who buys after those 10 years, unless within the 10 years an execution issued and that execution or a copy was filed with the clerk of the county court, or the buyer had actual notice that it issued. Let the decade pass with no execution, and the right buyer takes free.

Execution is the engine that keeps enforcement open. Execution may issue on a West Virginia judgment within 10 years of its date, and once one issues in time, more may issue within 10 years from the return day of the last execution that carries no officer's return or was returned unsatisfied. W. Va. Code 38-3-18³ sets that chain. And where parties change by death or otherwise, W. Va. Code 38-3-18(c) allows an action, suit or scire facias within the same 10 years, except against a decedent's personal representative, where the window is 5 years from the representative's qualification.

Land in another county

An automatic lien does not travel to a buyer's title without a docket entry in the county where the land sits.

Against a purchaser for valuable consideration without notice, a West Virginia judgment is not a lien unless it is docketed under W. Va. Code 38-3-5⁴ in the county where the real estate is, and docketed before the buyer's deed is delivered for record to the clerk of that county court. The deed is the line, drawn by W. Va. Code 38-3-7. Docket in one county and it does nothing to a buyer's title in another until it is docketed there too.

The docket is a real book in a real office. Under W. Va. Code 38-3-5, the clerk of every county court keeps a judgment docket and enters without delay any judgment of a West Virginia justice or court, or of a United States court within the state, on delivery of an authenticated abstract and payment or tender of the fee. Bring the abstract and pay the fee, and the clerk makes the entry.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

West Virginia runs two different homestead figures, and which one applies turns on whether the debtor is in bankruptcy.

Outside bankruptcy, the figure is small. Under W. Va. Code 38-9-1⁵, any husband, wife, parent or other head of a household residing in the state, or the infant children of deceased or insane parents, has a homestead exemption of 5,000 dollars by operation of law, subject to the state constitution. That same 5,000 dollars runs against all debts and liabilities under W. Va. Code 38-9-3(a)⁶, except purchase money, permanent improvements, and taxes or levies on the property. Hospital or medical debts from a catastrophic illness or injury draw a further 7,500 dollars under W. Va. Code 38-9-3(b), in addition to the 38-9-3(a) exemption, subject to W. Va. Code 9-5-11c and effective from July 1, 1996. Here a homestead means property owned and used as the principal home of the debtor, a spouse or a dependent, whether it is real property, a chattel real, a fixture or personal property, per W. Va. Code 38-9-2(1)⁷.

Inside bankruptcy the number changes entirely. Anyone who files under the federal bankruptcy law may claim the exemptions W. Va. Code 38-10-4⁸ lists, and subsection (a) protects the debtor's interest up to 35,000 dollars in a residence, a residential cooperative or a burial plot. One narrow case runs higher: W. Va. Code 38-10-4(a) lets a West Virginia licensed physician who filed in part because of a verdict or judgment in a medical professional liability action, and who carries malpractice insurance of at least 1,000,000 dollars per occurrence, exempt a residence above 35,000 dollars but not above 250,000 dollars per household. For the same comparison across the country, see homestead protection state by state.

Where the records live

A lien is born in the courtroom. Its hold on strangers to the case is born in the county clerk's book.

Two offices matter. The judgment the court renders is what creates the lien under W. Va. Code 38-3-6, dated to the judgment or, for a confessed judgment in vacation, to the time of day of the confession. Its reach against buyers lives in the judgment docket kept by the clerk of the county court under W. Va. Code 38-3-5, county by county. Ask about both, because the courtroom date and the docket county answer two different questions.