Submitted by kirksanderslaw on
So you have a judgment against someone in North Carolina, now what?
If it's an individual-debtor, this article is for you. If it's a corporation or LLC or business entity, then get a writ of execution from the clerk and pay the sheriff's fee. Congratulations, you might collect some assets soon that can be sold & you don't need to read the remainder of this article.
Back to Individual Debtors. NCGS 1C-1601 et seq. You have to serve Notice of Exemptions on the debtor. They have 20 days to answer.
The individual debtor can exempt certain items, for instance per 1C-1601:
$35,000 in interest in real property
$3,500 in a vehicle
$2,000 in professional tools and professional books
Life Insurance, IRAs
Upto $25,000 in 529 college plans
Health Aids (eg. you can't execute on their wheelchair).
If the debtor doesn't file exemptions, send the Sheriff out with a writ.
If the debtor answers, send the sheriff out with the writ.
However, before doing so, you can also hold hearings on values the debtor assigned to items and hold discovery on what items they do own.
Post Judgment Collection laws in North Carolina need some refreshing. It's convuluted and difficult. Plus I think we need free lance Process Servers to execute.
Call Kirk Sanders 336-768-1515 for your collection cases