Selling or assigning a judgment

What the buyer files in New York

New York does not use the word assignment in the controlling section. It describes the buyer as a person other than the one who won who becomes entitled to enforce the judgment.

That person files, with the clerk of the court that entered the judgment (or the county clerk who docketed a lower-court judgment), a copy of the instrument giving the authority, acknowledged the way a deed must be, or a certified copy of the court order. CPLR 5019(c)¹ requires it. An unacknowledged letter does not do the job.

On that filing the clerk makes an entry on the judgment's docket, which CPLR 5019(c) directs. Then the change travels outward: in any other county where the judgment is docketed, the clerk makes the same entry on filing a county clerk's certificate of the change, under CPLR 5019(d). One filing where the judgment lives, then a certificate for every county where the lien sits.

Once that is done the buyer is a judgment creditor under CPLR 105(l)², which defines the term as a person in whose favor a money judgment is entered or a person who becomes entitled to enforce it. The second clause is the buyer. The filing is what moves a buyer from the second clause into the first.

None of that applies if no judgment exists yet. CPLR 5019(c) says its own rule does not reach a debt whose owner changes by sale or assignment before judgment. That transfer runs on GOL 13-101³, which says a claim can generally be transferred, and GOL 13-105⁴, under which the transferee enforces in its own name as the transferor might have done, subject to defenses that existed against the transferor before notice, and subject to any special provision of law. Buy the debt before the verdict and these are the sections. Buy the judgment after it and the first ones are.

What the buyer records in Florida

Florida records the assignment rather than filing it with a court clerk, and the two kinds of Florida judgment lien take two different routes.

The clerk of the circuit court, acting as county recorder, records judgments and the assignments, releases and satisfactions of judgments in the Official Records. Fla. Stat. 28.222(3)(c)⁵ lists them. Everything goes into one series the statute names Official Records, and the clerk maintains a general alphabetical index, direct and inverse, of all instruments filed, so the record of an assignment can be found from either side.

The judgment lien on personal property, filed under section 55.202, moves differently. An amendment to the lien file, filed by or for the judgment creditor of record, may provide for assignment of that creditor's interest. Fla. Stat. 55.206(1)(a)⁶ authorizes it. And a later release signed by the assignee has to carry a written acknowledgment of the assignment from the creditor of record, under Fla. Stat. 55.206(2), so the chain is proven on the face of the file.

A buyer coming from secured-transactions habits should note where those rules stop. Fla. Stat. 679.1091(4)(i)⁷ takes an assignment of a right represented by a judgment out of Florida's UCC article, except where the judgment was taken on a right to payment that had been collateral. So the Article 9 playbook of financing statements does not govern the ordinary judgment assignment.

Whether an assignee is then substituted as a party in the Florida case, and whether recording the assignment has to come first, is not settled by any section here, and this page will not guess at it. There is also a timing duty that survives the sale: within 60 days after the judgment is fully paid, the creditor or assignee, or the attorney of record, must execute and record a satisfaction under Fla. Stat. 701.04(3)⁸. Buy the judgment and you buy that clock too.

What travels with the paper when a buyer prices

A buyer asks the same questions a creditor asks about collectibility. No figures appear here, and this page never says what a judgment is worth.

Time left on the lien changes hands with the paper. A Florida land lien runs 10 years from recording under Fla. Stat. 55.10(1)⁹, extends in 10-year blocks by rerecording with a current-address affidavit under Fla. Stat. 55.10(2), and under Fla. Stat. 55.081¹⁰ is dead as a lien 20 years after entry no matter what. A New York lien runs 10 years from filing of the judgment-roll under CPLR 5203¹¹, renewable by an action in the final year under CPLR 5014¹², with the renewal lien taking effect when the first 10 years expire.

Interest runs the whole time. In Florida the rate is fixed when the judgment is obtained and reset each January 1 until the judgment is paid, under Fla. Stat. 55.03(2)¹³ and (3). In New York it is 9 percent under CPLR 5004(a)¹⁴, except that an action arising out of a consumer debt against a natural person carries 2 percent on judgments entered on or after the 2021 amendment. Which rate rides with the paper is a fact a buyer reads off the judgment.

One event can empty the paper of value. A bankruptcy discharge voids a judgment, whenever obtained, to the extent it determines the debtor's personal liability on a discharged debt, under 11 U.S.C. 524(a)(1)¹⁵. The buyer prices what you would price. The answers travel with the paper, and so do the stops.

Where buying a judgment is itself collection business

In several states, buying debts or judgments in order to collect them makes you a collection agency or debt buyer by definition, with the license that follows.

Some states name it in the definition itself. Wyo. Stat. 33-11-101(a)(iii)¹⁶ reaches a person who takes assignment of debts to collect them, or who operates as a debt buyer. California folds a debt buyer into the term debt collector, at Cal. Fin. Code 100002(j)¹⁷, and Nevada, North Carolina and Washington fold a debt buyer into their collection-agency definitions, at NRS 649.020(3)(b)¹⁸, N.C. Gen. Stat. 58-70-15(b)(4)¹⁹ and RCW 19.16.100(4)(d)²⁰. Others reach the same conduct by a different route. Tennessee names it outright: Tenn. Code 62-20-102(3)²¹ reaches a person who solicits the purchase of claims or judgments for the purpose of collecting them. Arkansas makes it unlawful to purchase and attempt to collect delinquent accounts or bills without a license, at Ark. Code 17-24-301(4)²². Idaho lists collecting indebtedness bought from another, when delinquent or in default when acquired, among the activities needing a license, at Idaho Code 26-2223(6)²³. Minnesota bars conducting business as a debt buyer without a collection agency license under Minn. Stat. 332.33²⁴, subd. 1. Connecticut defines debt buying as an activity, at Conn. Gen. Stat. 36a-800(7)²⁵. And Maine defines a debt buyer and treats it as a debt collector for all purposes under its chapter, at 32 M.R.S. 11002²⁶(5-A).

Other states draw the line to leave some purchases out. Neb. Rev. Stat. 45-602(3)(k)²⁷ excludes a purchaser who collects in its own name. N.C. Gen. Stat. 58-70-15(c)(10) excludes a purchase of accounts that were not delinquent when bought. ORS 697.005(1)(b)(R)²⁸ excludes an assignment with no obligation to pay the assignor any of the proceeds. Tennessee, which names judgment-buying in its definition, also says at Tenn. Code 62-20-105(d)²⁹ that nothing in the chapter prevents anyone from buying, selling or assigning an obligation.

Two federal and local pieces matter to a consumer-debt buyer. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act a person is outside the definition of debt collector as to a debt not in default when obtained, at 15 U.S.C. 1692a(6)(F)³⁰, and is not a creditor when it takes a defaulted debt solely to collect it for another, at 15 U.S.C. 1692a(4). New York City's definition at N.Y.C. Admin. Code 20-489(a)³¹ includes a buyer of delinquent debt who collects through legal process, and the city agency says a business whose principal purpose is collecting household debts from city residents must hold the license wherever it sits. Whether a New York State license is required is a question the sections here do not settle. The licensing map runs wider than this page does, and the piece on collection agency licensing takes it further.

New York adds a restriction that is not about licensing at all. Judiciary Law 489(1)³² bars a business engaged in collection, and any corporation or association, from buying a claim with the intent and for the purpose of suing on it. A misdemeanor for a person or partnership, a fine of up to five thousand dollars for a corporation or association, under the same subdivision. There are doors through it: Judiciary Law 489(1) lets judgments be bought from executors, trustees in bankruptcy and others administering estates, and Judiciary Law 489(2), subject to its subdivision 3, exempts a purchase of instruments of one obligor with an aggregate purchase price of at least five hundred thousand dollars.

What this page does not cover

Two states on the mechanics, a definition line in a dozen more, and the federal consumer floor. No more than that.

Nobody writing this is a lawyer and none of it is advice. Whether to sell a judgment, and to whom, turns on facts only you can see in your own file, and this page states none of them. It does not value a judgment and it does not tell you whether a buyer across a state line needs a license there, because the licensing lines above are definitions, and whether a particular person must register turns on sections that are not all here.

Two gaps are worth naming out loud. Whether a Florida assignee is substituted into the case, and whether the recorded assignment must come first, no section here answers. And whether a judgment buyer needs a New York State license is a question the statutes gathered for this page do not settle. What a page can do is narrower. It can tell you which paper the buyer files, which office records it, and that the clock and the interest travel with it.