Vol. 31, No. 3, #2. A Practitioner's Overview of Enforcing a Civil Money Judgment.

• Author: Author: Bret T. Allred and J. Philip Bott

Wyoming Bar Journal

2008.

Vol. 31, No. 3, #2.

A Practitioner's Overview of Enforcing a Civil Money Judgment

Wyoming Bar Journal Issue: June, 2008 Author: Bret T. Allred and J. Philip Bott A Practitioner's Overview of Enforcing a Civil Money Judgment

A civil money judgment's true value is realized through an effective plan for post-judgment enforcement. This article will discuss the methods to discover the existence and location of a judgment debtor's ("Debtor") property as well as the three most common methods for obtaining and selling the property: Garnishment, Continuing Garnishment, and Execution. The history, development, equitable/legal theories, or how to address exceptional circumstances of enforcing a civil money judgment ("Judgment") will not be discussed. Finding the Assets

There are a number of non-judicial means available to locate the assets of a Debtor. County Treasurer's and Assessor's offices have public records relating to vehicle and property ownership. There are also subscription services to find location and asset information on Debtors via Internet-hosted databases. However, these services tend to be expensive and are more targeted toward firms which participate in enforcement activities on a large scale. Individual cases may justify the use of private investigators, but the cost of such a service would have to be balanced against the potential for return.

Judicially enforced methods of locating assets are made available in the Wyoming Statutes ("WS") and Rules of Civil Procedure ("W.R.C.P."). Wyoming Statutes 1-17-402 and 1-21-517 allow the judgment creditor ("Creditor") to "obtain discovery by interrogatories, depositions or otherwise, from any person, including the judgment debtor, in accordance with the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure." The scope for post-judgment discovery is quite broad, limited only by the definition of "Property subject to execution." A post-judgment discovery request may reach third parties and impose upon them an obligation to hold all assets in their possession belonging to the Debtor for the benefit of the Creditor. Unfortunately, discovery requests are often ignored, forcing the Creditor to rely on enforcement under Rule 37 of the W.R.C.P.

Writs of Garnishment

In general, Writs of garnishments ("Garnishments") are governed by WS 1-15-401 - 1-15-425. Garnishments are directed...