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How a judgment becomes a lien, in all fifty states and DC

A judgment is a piece of paper until some act ties it to land. That act is not the same from one state to the next: in one it is a copy recorded in a county office, in another an entry in a court's judgment docket, and in a few the judgment itself at the moment it is entered. This page sorts the fifty-one jurisdictions into four families by the act each statute names, states each state in its own statute's words, and does not tell you what your own judgment is worth or whether to file it. Nobody writing this is a lawyer and none of it is advice.

Listen instead

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.

Four families, by the act that makes the lien

The families are a way of reading fifty-one statutes at once. They are not statutory terms, and every sentence about a state rests on that state's own section, not on the family label.

The largest family records. In twenty-four jurisdictions the arises when some paper, a , an abstract, a transcript, a certificate or a notice of the judgment, is recorded or filed with a county office. The office carries many names. California, Idaho and Nevada record with a county recorder. Alaska records with the recorder of a recording district, AS 09.30.0101. Michigan uses a . Connecticut and Vermont use a town clerk. Alabama files with a judge of probate, under Ala. Code 6-9-2102, and Louisiana files with a recorder of mortgages, where Louisiana does not call the result a lien at all but a , created by filing the judgment under La. Civ. Code art. 33003. Ohio files a certificate with the clerk of the court of common pleas. Ohio Rev. Code 2329.024 makes that the moment the lien attaches. Oklahoma is the trap inside this family: filing or recording the judgment itself does nothing, and only a Statement of Judgment filed with the county clerk creates a general lien. 12 O.S. 7065 says both halves.

The second family dockets. In sixteen jurisdictions the lien runs from the judgment's , , indexing or entry in a book the court keeps for judgments. New York dockets a money judgment with the county clerk. CPLR 50186 has the clerk docket it immediately after the is filed. Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and Washington turn on a similar entry by a court officer. Two states in this family leave a reader short: a Maryland money judgment is a lien if indexed and recorded as the Maryland Rules prescribe, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. 11-402 says so, but which office and what act the Rules require are not settled here. Mississippi is blunter still, since a judgment is not a lien unless enrolled, Miss. Code 11-7-1917, and the office of enrollment is a question this page leaves open.

The third family ties the lien to entry itself. In seven jurisdictions, Delaware, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon and West Virginia, the statute binds land when the judgment is entered, rendered or signed, in the county where that happens. Conditions differ inside the family. Kansas, for a limited-actions judgment, needs the fee paid and the clerk's entry in the appearance docket. Oregon needs the court administrator's note in the , not merely entry. Nebraska treats a judgment as rendered when it is entered on the judgment index. West Virginia does not make a judgment a lien against a purchaser for value without notice unless it is docketed in the county where the land is, W. Va. Code 38-3-78. In New Jersey a Superior Court judgment binds real estate only from its actual entry on the court's minutes or records, N.J.S.A. 2A:16-19, and the Clerk of the Superior Court keeps the one civil judgment and order docket. Whether that reaches land in every county is a question the statutes here do not answer.

The fourth family is the smallest and the oldest in feel. In Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine, land is held not by a judgment lien but by an attachment or a of execution at the registry of deeds. A skip through these sections is a skip through a different vocabulary entirely. Maine comes closest to the others: filing an execution, or an attested copy, with a registry of deeds within 3 years after it issues creates the lien under 14 M.R.S. 4651-A10. A federal district court judgment sits across all four families. 28 U.S.C. 196211 makes it a lien in its state in the same manner and on the same conditions as a judgment of that state's court of general jurisdiction, applies a state's filing requirements to it only if state law lets federal judgments be filed the same way, and does not apply to judgments entered in favor of the United States.

A map of the fifty states and the District of Columbia colored by four families. Recording a paper with a county office: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wyoming. Docketing in a court's judgment docket: Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin. The judgment's own entry or rendition: Delaware, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, West Virginia. Attachment or execution at a registry of deeds: Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island.

Twenty-four jurisdictions record a paper, sixteen docket, seven take the lien from the judgment's own entry, and four hold land by attachment or execution.

Reading your own row

For any one jurisdiction, three facts answer the reader's question: what paper or entry creates the lien, where it goes, and how long it lasts.

The creating act and its office are the first two. Florida records a certified copy in the county's official records, provided the judgment states the lienholder's address or an affidavit stating it is recorded at the same moment, Fla. Stat. 55.1012. Texas records and indexes an , if the judgment is not then , Tex. Prop. Code 52.00113. Virginia records the judgment on the judgment lien docket of the clerk's office of the county or city where the land is, Va. Code 8.01-45814. Each row names one act and one office, and a reader who knows those two things knows what to ask the clerk.

The third fact is the clock, and it varies more than the act does. Michigan's lien expires 5 years after recording, MCL 600.280915. Pennsylvania's continues for five years from entry in the judgment index, Pa.R.C.P. 302316. New York's runs until ten years after the judgment-roll was filed, CPLR 520317, while a North Dakota judgment docketed after August 1, 2021 is a lien for twenty years, N.D.C.C. 28-20-1318. The duration detail, with its stays, dormancy and renewals, is a subject of its own and not resolved here.

What the lien reaches is a fourth fact, and it matters because of what it leaves out. Many states exclude the by name: a Texas lien does not attach to real property exempt from seizure or forced sale, Tex. Prop. Code 52.001, and South Dakota, North Dakota and Wisconsin each exclude the homestead in the lien section itself. For several jurisdictions the statutes here do not settle the scope question. What a Delaware or New Jersey judgment lien reaches, and whether a Kansas lien bites the homestead, are questions this page states as open rather than guessing at.

When the land is in another county

A lien made in one county usually stops at that county's line. Crossing it takes a second act, and the second act is not always the same as the first.

In the recording family the rule is plain and county by county. The paper is recorded in each county where the debtor's land lies, and the lien reaches only land in that county. Florida says a judgment becomes a lien in any county when a certified copy is recorded there, Fla. Stat. 55.10, and a Texas abstract reaches only real property in the county where it is recorded and indexed, Tex. Prop. Code 52.001. Record once, cover one county. Record again, cover another.

Where the lien begins with a docket, the second county is reached by a transcript, certificate or certified copy filed with that county's clerk, who dockets it there. New York is worth stating in full, because a judgment docketed by transcript in another county has the same effect as a Supreme Court judgment entered in that county, CPLR 5018. Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington each run some version of this transcript-and-docket route. A lien made in the second county can still depend on the first: an Oregon lien recorded in another county expires there when it expires in the county of entry, ORS 18.15219.

Some jurisdictions leave the second county unsettled. Nebraska binds lands outside its county from the time they are seized in execution, Neb. Rev. Stat. 25-150420, and whether a transcript can make a lien there first is a question this page leaves open. South Dakota requires docketing in the county where the land is before any judgment becomes a lien there, SDCL 15-16-721, and does not spell out the filing that dockets a judgment in a second county. A Wisconsin lien reaches land in the county where the judgment is rendered, Wis. Stat. 806.1522; how a judgment is docketed in another county so as to become a lien on land there is a question this page does not answer. The step-by-step of which recording act fixes priority, and on which day, is the work of the page on priority by recording date. Land in another state is a different question again.

Where land is held by attachment or execution

Four New England states reach land through an attachment or a levy of execution recorded at the registry of deeds. The statutes here describe that process and do not describe a general judgment lien.

Massachusetts takes land on execution: when land not attached on mesne process is taken, the officer deposits a copy of the execution, with a memorandum, in the registry of deeds for the county or district where the land lies, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 236, 423. Only if the officer deposits a certified copy of the writ there is a separate attachment on mesne process good against later attaching creditors and good-faith purchasers, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 223, 6324. After judgment, attached property stays subject to the attachment for thirty days after the execution's date. Clocks run on these: land attached on mesne process needs the execution copy deposited within forty days after the date on the execution, or the attachment becomes void.

New Hampshire attaches property liable to execution and holds it as security for the judgment, real estate by leaving an attested copy of the writ and return with the register of deeds of the county, RSA 511:325. Attached property is held until the expiration of six years from the time a judgment is rendered in favor of the plaintiff on which the plaintiff can take execution, RSA 511:5526. Rhode Island levies the execution on property the writ attached, and if it is not levied within one year after judgment the property is discharged from the attachment, R.I. Gen. Laws 9-25-2327; a levied execution of record generally stops being a lien twenty years after the judgment, though not where the levy is against only one spouse in real estate held as tenants by the entirety, R.I. Gen. Laws 9-26-3328. Maine files the execution with a registry of deeds.

A word on what this section does not say. It states what these four sections provide and nothing more. It does not say that any of these states has no judgment lien, because the statutes here do not answer that, and silence is not a rule. Half an answer stated as a whole one is worse than no answer.

Sources

Every section named above, with how current the text we read was. Read any of them yourself.

  1. AS 09.30.010, Code of Civil Procedure § 09.30.010. Recording copy of judgment as lien. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  2. Ala. Code 6-9-210, 6-9-210 Certificate of Clerk or Register to Be Filed with Probate Judge; Registration and Indexing by Probate Judge. The. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  3. La. Civ. Code art. 3300, XXII, Art. 3300. Creation of judicial mortgage. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  4. Ohio Rev. Code 2329.02, Courts Common Pleas § 2329.02. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  5. 12 O.S. 706, pe. This section applies to all judgments of courts of record of this state, and judgments of courts of record of the Un. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  6. CPLR 5018, Docketing of judgment. Current through January 01, 2026. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  7. Miss. Code 11-7-191, Civil Practice and Procedure § 11-7-191. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  8. W. Va. Code 38-3-7, Liens § 38-3-7. Judgment lien not good as against bona fide purchasers unless docketed, etc.; effect of issuing and filing execution. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  9. N.J.S.A. 2A:16-1, Administration of Civil and Criminal Justice 2A § 16-1. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  10. 14 M.R.S. 4651-A, Court Procedure--Civil § 4651-A. Execution liens. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  11. 28 U.S.C. 1962, Lien. Enacted Nov. 29, 1990. Check the link for later amendments. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  12. Fla. Stat. 55.10, Judgments, orders, and decrees; lien of all, generally; extension of liens; transfer of liens to other security. 2026 Florida Statutes. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  13. Tex. Prop. Code 52.001, Establishment of Lien. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  14. Va. Code 8.01-458, Civil Remedies and Procedure § 8.01-458. From what time judgment to be a lien on real estate;  docketing revived judgment. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  15. MCL 600.2809, Revised Judicature Act of 1961 § 600.2809. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  16. Pa.R.C.P. 3023, Pa.R.C.P. 3023. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  17. CPLR 5203, Priorities and liens upon real property. Current through January 01, 2026. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  18. N.D.C.C. 28-20-13, Judicial Procedure, Civil § 28-20-13. Docketing judgment--Transcript to other counties--Lien on real property. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  19. ORS 18.152, Oregon Revised Statutes Procedure in Civil Proceedings § 18.152. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  20. Neb. Rev. Stat. 25-1504, Courts; Civil Procedure § 25-1504. Lien of judgment; when attaches; lands within county where entered; other lands; chattels. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  21. SDCL 15-16-7, Lien of docketed judgment on real property within county--Duration of lien. When a judgment has been docketed with a cle. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  22. Wis. Stat. 806.15, 799 to 847) § 806.15. Lien of judgment; priority; statute may be suspended. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  23. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 236, 4, Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases (Ch. 211-262) Ch. 236, § 4. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  24. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 223, 63, Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases (Ch. 211-262) Ch. 223, § 63. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  25. RSA 511:3, Service on Register. – Real estate may be attached on a writ of mesne process by the officer, the plaintiff, his attorne. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  26. RSA 511:55, Duration of Certain Attachments. – I. Real or personal property attached shall be held until the expiration of 6 years f. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  27. R.I. Gen. Laws 9-25-23, Courts and Civil Procedure--Procedure Generally § 9-25-23. Execution against attached property. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
  28. R.I. Gen. Laws 9-26-33, Courts and Civil Procedure--Procedure Generally § 9-26-33. Discharge after twenty years of levy against real estate. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back

Each state on its own page