If you sue someone for the injuries they caused you, and you win your case, your payment should come quite quickly. If there are appeals, it might delay your damages, but what should never delay your damages is the defendant simply refusing to pay.
When the court orders the defendant to pay you, they have a legal obligation to follow through. If they refuse – and they do not have a legal excuse under the rules that apply to appeals – then you have a few options. Most importantly, your lawyers can file for a lien on the defendant’s property, a writ of execution asking a sheriff to seize and sell off the defendant’s property, and wage garnishment.
For help with your injury case, contact the Dallas personal injury attorneys at The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797.
When Do You Need to Enforce a Judgment for Personal Injury in Texas?
When the judge tells the defense to pay you, that should be the end of the story. However, many companies and individuals will simply refuse. In other situations, they might try to reach out to your lawyers and ask to renegotiate or enter into a settlement to set aside the judgment. In these cases, you should turn to our Texas personal injury lawyers for help enforcing the judgment.
Not every case where you need to enforce the judgment requires such bad action, but it is one of the most common reasons for enforcement. When defendants are unhappy with the ruling against them, they might simply refuse to give in. Then, the only way to get the money you’re owed will be for the court to take it for you.
In some cases, defendants go to great lengths to avoid paying. One famous case you might be familiar with (though not a Texas case) saw allegations that the “Tiger King,” Joe Exotic, transferred his assets into his mother’s name to try to avoid paying a judgment that his rival Carole Baskin had received against him. People sometimes do extreme things when their money is on the line, from moving to selling off their property to transferring title to someone else to literally burying money. No matter how out-of-the-ordinary their response to the judgment is, there are tools we can use to enforce a judgment against them.
Methods for Making Reluctant Defendants Pay Your Injury Damages in Texas
Courts primarily have power because we treat them as though they are powerful, and we listen when the court orders us to do something. But courts know that they need real power to back up that reputational power, and the legislature has designed a few enforcement mechanisms to help plaintiffs actually get the judgment the court handed down:
Leins
When a judgment is issued, you might have to wait around 30 days before you can take action, but a judgment lien is usually one of the first options you have. Tx. Prop. Code § 52.001 allows a lien to be placed on any property that doesn’t have an exemption protecting it from sale – more details on that below.
A lien is essentially an asterisk on property ownership that gives the lienholder – i.e., you, in this case – to get their debt paid off before the property owner is allowed to access the funds from a sale of the property. Liens can be entered as part of a mortgage, as part of another credit arrangement, to cover unpaid improvements to the property (mechanic’s liens), to pay unpaid taxes, and to satisfy other debts the property owner owes.
Liens can be taken out against a lot of different properties, but they are more common for property that cannot easily be moved, like a piece of land or a building. However, because of the exceptions discussed below, you usually cannot put a lien on the defendant’s primary home.
Forced Sales
Sometimes called a “writ of execution,” there are a series of laws governing how courts enter orders for the sheriff to seize the defendant’s property and sell it off to satisfy their debt to the injury victim.
One potential wrench in this system is that the Texas Constitution’s Art. XVI, § 50 protects one’s “homestead” – i.e., their primary residence – from being sold in a forced sale except for the specified reasons. These reasons mostly deal with debts concerning the property itself – such as selling the property to cover unpaid taxes or mechanic’s liens. This potentially blocks your ability to seize their house to satisfy a judgment.
All in all, if your judgment can be satisfied by the sale of something like a car or boat that the sheriff can take away from the defendant, this might be the most expedient way to get you the money you are owed.
A court can also order the defendant to personally turn over the property to be sold. If the defendant refuses to do so, the court can hold them in contempt until they agree to obey this order. However, this essentially has the same effect in the end: the property goes to the sheriff to sell it off. So, either method works pretty similarly.
Wage Garnishment
Another thing the court can do is order wage garnishment. This will take a percentage of the defendant’s paycheck before they get it to put that money toward paying the debt they owe you.
There are both state and federal restrictions on how much of someone’s wages can be garnished, which often means that a judgment enforced with garnishment will be paid by a trickle rather than a strong flow of cash. It might take a while, but this might be the only option to get your judgment in some cases.
What is a “Judgment-Proof” Defendant in Texas?
When a defendant has low income or little to no assets to cover a judgment against them, they are often referred to as “judgment-proof.” This means that, at the end of the day, they simply don’t have the money to cover your injuries.
In many cases, suing these parties in the first place is useless. However, insurance often means that even if the individual has no assets or cash, there might still be money available to pay for your injuries. There might also be related parties that are better to sue in your case, such as the individual’s employer. This is especially common in truck accident cases and other claims where the person injured you during the course of their work.
You should always talk to a lawyer about the potential for getting your damages paid before you ever even go forward with a lawsuit.
Call Our Texas Personal Injury Lawyers Today
For help with an injury claim, contact the Houston personal injury lawyers at The Queenan Law Firm by dialing (817) 476-1797.