Execution Procedure Judgment Creditor Booklet {CIV-550}

CIV-550 (8/15)(yellow cvr) EXECUTION PROCEDURE JUDGMENT CREDITOR BOOKLET See Booklet CIV-503 For Instructions About Executing On The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Court staff generally can inform you about court procedures, court rules, court records, and forms. Court staff must remain neutral and impartial. They are not allowed to give legal advice. Court staff cannot: 225 advise you how statutes and rules apply to your case, 225 tell you whether the documents you prepare properly present your case, 225 tell you what the best procedures are to accomplish a particular objective, or 225 interpret laws for you. If you need help with your case, you should talk to a lawyer. August 2015 ALASKA COURT SYSTEM This booklet and most of the forms mentioned in it are available on the court system222s website at: http://courts.alaska.gov/forms/index.htm American LegalNet, Inc. www.FormsWorkFlow.com 251 Copyright 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015 Alaska Court System All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce the contents of this booklet, but not for profit, is hereby granted to governmental and non-profit educational institutions. However, reproduction of any part of this booklet for commercial purposes without the express written permission of the Alaska Court System is strictly prohibited. American LegalNet, Inc. www.FormsWorkFlow.com CIV-550 (8/15) JUDGMENT CREDITOR BOOKLET i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction .............................................................................................................. ii I. Brief Outline of Execution Procedure .......................................................... 1 II. Execution Procedure ..................................................................................... 2 A. Executing on Debtor's Earnings ....................................................... 4 B. Executing on Debtor's Property ..................................................... 10 C. Executing on Certain Kinds of Personal Property ........................ 17 D. Judgments to Collect Specific Personal Property ......................... 23 III. Serving Documents .................................................................................... 24 IV. How to Locate Debtor's Assets .................................................................. 29 A. Places to Look ................................................................................ 29 B. Judgment Debtor Hearing ............................................................... 31 C. Formal Discovery Procedures ........................................................ 33 V. Other Remedies ......................................................................................... 34 VI. Creditor's Duty to Acknowledge Satisfaction of Judgment ...................... 36 VII. Other Information ...................................................................................... 37 VIII. Claims Enforceable Against Exempt Property .......................................... 39 IX. Glossary ...................................................................................................... 41 American LegalNet, Inc. www.FormsWorkFlow.com CIV-550 (8/15) JUDGMENT CREDITOR BOOKLET ii INTRODUCTION Execution procedures are complicated. This booklet is a basic explanation of the steps generally involved. It is not, however, a complete statement of everything there is to know about how to collect the amount you are owed after you win a judgment in a court case. For more information, you may want to read the Alaska Statutes on execution procedure: Chapter 35 and Chapter 38 of Title 9 of the Alaska Statutes (abbreviated as AS 09.35.010 etc. and AS 09.38.010 etc.). Be sure to check the supplement to see if any of the statutes have been amended. You may also want to read Civil Rule 69 in the Alaska Rules of Court. You can find the statutes and court rules in the State Law Library at the Anchorage court, in the court libraries at several other court locations, and in many city libraries. They are also available on the Internet. You can find links to them on the court system222s website at www.courts.alaska.gov For more information about the debtor's rights, you should read the JUDGMENT DEBTOR BOOKLET (CIV-511 ), available at all state courthouses and on the court system222s website. You may want to contact a lawyer for assistance. If you do not have a lawyer, the Lawyer Referral Service of the Alaska Bar Association may be able to help you find a lawyer. Call 272-0352 in Anchorage or 800-770-9999 if you are outside Anchorage (toll free within Alaska). There may be some words used in this booklet which are unfamiliar to you or which have special meanings when used in this type of legal procedure. The Glossary, which begins on page 41, may be helpful to you. Note: This booklet describes the procedures to be used by general creditors (that is, creditors who do not have security interests in their debtors' property). Creditors who have a security interest in particular property owned by the debtor may have to follow special procedures in executing upon that property if they wish to assert their rights under the security interest. See AS 09.38.070. Also see footnote 31. American LegalNet, Inc. www.FormsWorkFlow.com CIV-550 (8/15) 1 JUDGMENT CREDITOR BOOKLET I. BRIEF OUTLINE OF EXECUTION PROCEDURE If you won a judgment and the debtor failed to pay what the debtor owes you under that judgment, you may use execution procedures to try to collect your judgment. Briefly, the most common type of execution procedure works like this: 1. You (the judgment creditor) ask the court for a Writ of Execution. 2. The court issues the Writ of Execution and gives it to a process server picked by you from an approved list. You will have to pay the court to issue the writ and the process server to serve the writ. 3. The process server takes the Writ of Execution and uses it to seize some of the debtor's property (for example, money in the debtor's bank account). Note: You have to tell the process server where to find the debtor's property. 4. The property is placed in storage at your expense by the process server, or if it is money, it is delivered to the court for safekeeping. 5. Various papers must be served on the debtor to notify the debtor that the property has been seized and that the debtor may have rights which will allow the debtor to get the property back. These rights are called the debtor's "exemptions." These papers can be served on the debtor by a process server or sent to the debtor by certified mail. 6. The debtor has a certain amount of time within which to contact the court to claim exemptions. If the debtor does so, you will have an opportunity to oppose it. Then, the court will decide whether to grant the exemptions. If the debtor does not claim any exemptions, the property may be sold at public auction in order to pay you. As you will see in the following pages, execution procedures are frequently more complicated than this. Also, depending on the property you want to seize, the steps may be somewhat different. The above outline should, however, give you a general idea of the steps involved. American LegalNet, Inc. www.FormsWorkFlow.com CIV-550 (8/15) 2 JUDGMENT CREDITOR BOOKLET II. EXECUTION PROCEDURE Preliminary Matters A court case ends with the judge's decision as to who won. The judge's decision will always be in writing. It is called the "judgment." If you win a judgment which says someone owes you money, you are called the "judgment creditor." The person who owes the money to you is called the "judgment debtor." These terms will be used throughout this booklet, so you should get used to them. When you win your judgment, you should ask the judgment debtor to pay you. The debtor may be willing to pay you but may need some time. If you want to, you can ask the debtor if he or she would be willing to sign an agreement to make installment payments to pay off the judgment. The Court System provides a form for this in small claims cases called the Stipulation For Installment Payments (form SC-