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Civil court judgments come in many forms. A judgment is little more than a court order designed to resolve a dispute between parties. For example, a money judgment involves some sort of monetary award being paid by one party to the other. Sometimes money judgments also have possessory components attached.
Any money judgment can be complicated in terms of enforcement. When a judgment has possessory components, another layer of complexity is added to the enforcement process. Personally, I would not attempt to enforce such a judgment on my own. I would probably engage an agency like Salt Lake City’s Judgment Collectors to handle the money portion while leaving the possessory components to my attorney.
Judgment collection agencies are particularly good at addressing monetary awards. Meanwhile, attorneys know all the ins and outs of taking possession of debtor property. Between the two, they are more suited to getting the job done than I would be.
A Straight Money Judgment
A straight money judgment is one handed down by a court based on the belief that a monetary award is the best and most complete way to resolve the dispute. A great example is a personal injury case resulting from a car accident. The court awards the plaintiff so much money to cover medical costs along with lost income and pain and suffering.
Although the plaintiff may ultimately have to go after the defendant’s personal property for payment, doing so is not part of the judgment itself. Placing liens and seeking writs of execution are part of the enforcement process. Therefore, such a suit would have no possessory component.
A Landlord-Tenant Dispute
A good example of a money judgment with a possessory component would involve a dispute between a landlord and tenant. The tenant owes back rent but still lives on the property in question. The court must decide how to rectify the dispute. In finding for the plaintiff, the court can satisfy both monetary and possessory requirements:
- Monetary – The defendant is ordered by the court to pay all past due rents along with the plaintiff’s court costs and legal fees. Interest may be attached to the debt until it is paid off.
- Possessory – The defendant is also ordered to vacate the property within a certain amount of time. This allows the plaintiff to take possession once again.
The possessory component of the judgment is all about the landlord getting his property back. He may seek this outcome as part of his case, due to a lack of trust in the tenant to both bring his account up-to-date and continue paying rent on time for the remainder of the lease.
Possessory Component Enforcement
Just as with the money component, courts do not directly intervene in the enforcement of possessor components. This does not mean a plaintiff is left out in the cold. The previous example of the landlord-tenant dispute provides a good illustration.
An eviction notice being issued to the tenant would be one of the outcomes of the judgment. The tenant would have so many days to vacate the property. If he failed to do so, the landlord could contact the local sheriff’s office for assistance. The sheriff would be compelled to enforce the eviction according to law.
There are times when a civil judgment involves both a monetary and possessory component. Like any other civil judgment, one containing both components is enforced by the winning party. My personal opinion is that winning parties should not attempt to enforce on their own. They should utilize the services of attorneys and collection agencies that specialize in such matters.
