In the world of post-judgment collection, creditors frequently encounter a debtor who in an effort to shield his/her assets transfers those assets to a trust for "asset protection." While creditor's counsel can generally enforce the judgment against the revocable...
Asset protection is a set of legal techniques and a body of statutory and common law dealing with lawfully protecting assets of individuals and business entities from civil money judgments. The goal of all lawful asset protection planning is to lawfully insulate as...
While the Phantom of the Opera was a work of fiction, the phantom discharge is the real deal. If you are collecting a judgment in California, generally all property that is acquired during the course of a marriage belongs jointly to both spouses, even if only one...
An affirmative defense is an allegation for justification for the defendant have acted or not acted as is alleged in the complaint. The defendant is simply arguing that he has a good reason for having done what is alleged in the complaint, and therefore should be...
When it comes to dealing with a power of attorney, it is important to note that the terminology used by the parties isn't controlling. In other words, for the debtor to simply state that a power is coupled with an interest in the power of attorney doesn't make it so....
The lengths to which a judgment debtor will go to avoid collection is shocking to some, but not to an experienced commercial collections attorney. One tool not often used by the debtor, and challenging in its intricacies, is the irrevocable power of attorney,...
We recently discussed the right to attach, a provisional remedy that enables creditors to preserve the value of potential judgments after a court action is filed but before it has been concluded. The attachment remedy allows commercial creditors holding unsecured...
Writs of Attachment are handy tools to tie up assets at the start of a commercial collections lawsuit so that when you have your judgment you still have something to collect upon (more on writs of attachment can be found here). However, a smart collection attorney...
In this post, we discussed the value of a motion for summary judgment in a commercial collection case where the claims litigated relate to failure to pay on a written instrument. We touched on the need for the client to provide declarations in the form of business...
For many types of commercial collection cases, the claims litigated relate to failure to pay on an instrument, i.e., a promissory note, a line of credit, a personal guaranty, or breach of a contract to pay certain amounts. It follows that the goal of litigation is to...