How to Collect a Judgment in Florida After a Business Debt Lawsuit
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You won, and the customer still has not paid. To collect a judgment in Florida you have to convert a piece of paper into cash, using a separate set of statutes that has little to do with the case you just tried.
Why Is Winning the Lawsuit Not the End of the Case?
A judgment is a court’s declaration that you are owed money. It is not a payment mechanism, and no court collects it for you. Every dollar you recover after entry comes from a tool you affirmatively invoke, at your own cost.
Two facts shape the timeline. Florida gives you twenty years to bring an action on a judgment of a court of record in this state. Interest also runs: the rate is set when the judgment is obtained and adjusted each January 1 until it is paid, unless a written contract sets the rate instead.
If you are earlier in the process, our guide to suing on an unpaid invoice covers what comes before this point.
What Should You Ask For Before the Judgment Is Signed?
Ask for the fact information sheet in the judgment itself. Under the civil rules, the court, at the request of the judgment creditor, must order the debtor to complete the approved fact information sheet within 45 days. Requesting it inside the final judgment saves a separate motion and starts asset discovery immediately.
Two other items belong in the same request:
- Retained jurisdiction to enforce compliance with the fact information sheet.
- The lienholder’s address stated in the judgment, which is a condition of the real property lien below.
Discovery in aid of execution can reach past the debtor’s own accounts. Florida’s Second District has permitted post-judgment discovery of jointly held assets, and the rules condition the spousal portion of the fact information sheet on a proper predicate. Where the debtor is uncooperative, asset searches and investigations fill the gaps.
How Do You Lock In Priority Against Other Creditors?
Record and file, in two separate places. Florida splits the judgment lien in two, and doing one does not accomplish the other.
The Real Property Lien
Recording a certified copy of the judgment in a county’s official records creates a lien on real property in that county under Fla. Stat. § 55.10. The statute is explicit that a judgment does not become a lien unless the lienholder’s address appears in the judgment or an address affidavit is recorded at the same time.
The lien is county by county, so a debtor with land in three counties requires three recordings. The initial term is ten years from recording, extendable by rerecording before expiration, but only if an affidavit with the current address is recorded simultaneously. A separate outer limit runs from the date of entry.
The Personal Property Lien
A judgment lien certificate filed with the Florida Department of State reaches personal property subject to execution, plus payment intangibles and accounts, under Fla. Stat. § 55.202. It excludes fixtures, money, negotiable instruments, and mortgages.
File it too early and it is permanently void. The statute allows filing only after the judgment is final, after the time to move for rehearing has lapsed, with no rehearing motion pending and no stay in effect. A void certificate does not bar a later compliant one.
Three details drive the outcome:
- You sit behind a prior filed secured party holding a financing statement in those accounts and their proceeds.
- It is not a snapshot. Priority among competing judgment liens runs by filing date and time, though no lien attaches to an asset until the debtor acquires an interest in it.
- It lapses five years after filing. One second lien is available in a defined window around the lapse, but the statute treats it as a new lien rather than a continuation, so priority dates from the new filing.
Our post on new options for pursuing judgment liens covers the intangible property expansion.
Which Tools Actually Reach Assets?
Liens preserve position. These three go after the property.
Writ of Execution and Levy
An execution issued on the judgment stays valid for the life of the judgment. Lands and tenements, goods and chattels, equities of redemption, and stock in corporations are subject to levy and sale under execution, which makes it the default route against tangible assets and inventory.
Garnishment
After judgment, the writ issues on a motion stating the amount of the judgment, and that motion is neither verified nor required to address the defendant’s exemptions. Garnishment reaches money the debtor already has coming to it, meaning bank deposits and receivables sitting in a third party’s hands.
Exemptions are handled separately, not skipped. Where the defendant is an individual, such as a guarantor, the clerk attaches a claim of exemption notice to the writ, and the plaintiff must mail the writ, the motion, and that notice on a short statutory clock. Ownership form matters: our post on garnishment of bank accounts explains why entireties accounts may be beyond reach, and our bank and wage garnishment practice handles the writ and the garnishee’s answer.
Charging Order Against an LLC Interest
Where the debtor is an individual guarantor holding a membership interest, Fla. Stat. § 605.0503 lets the court charge that transferable interest so distributions flow to you. Except as the statute provides for foreclosure, it is the sole and exclusive remedy against that interest, so payment depends on the company distributing.
Foreclosure is available only against a single-member LLC, and only on a showing that distributions will not satisfy the judgment within a reasonable time. For a multi-member company the statute forecloses that option, though it preserves consensual security interests, fraudulent transfer principles, and equitable theories such as alter ego.
Note the direction of the rule. It governs a creditor of a member, not a creditor of the company. A judgment against the LLC itself is enforced against company assets.
What Is Proceedings Supplementary, and When Do You Use It?
Proceedings supplementary pulls third parties and transferred assets into the existing case instead of requiring a new lawsuit. Under Fla. Stat. § 56.29, a creditor holding an unsatisfied judgment files a motion and affidavit stating the unsatisfied amount and stating that the execution is valid and outstanding.
The court then issues a Notice to Appear. It must describe the property, debt, or other obligation with reasonable particularity, allow the recipient to present defenses, note that discovery is available, and note the right to a jury trial. The response is due no sooner than seven business days after service.
Two provisions do the heavy lifting:
- A burden shift. Where the debtor had title to or paid the purchase price of personal property within one year before service of process in the original action, and a spouse, relative, or person on confidential terms now claims title and right of possession, the burden runs to the judgment debtor.
- Costs and fees. Costs of the proceedings are taxed against the judgment debtor, and reasonable attorney fees may be taxed as well.
Our proceedings supplementary practice handles these motions statewide.
How Do You Reach Assets the Debtor Already Moved?
Through a transfer claim, brought inside the supplementary proceeding by supplemental complaint. Subject to the statutory limits on transferee liability, Fla. Stat. § 726.108 gives a creditor avoidance of the transfer, attachment against the asset, an injunction against further disposition, appointment of a receiver, and levy on the asset or its proceeds.
A transferee who took in good faith and for a reasonably equivalent value has a complete defense to the actual intent version of the claim, though not to the constructive versions that turn on value and solvency. The statutory periods also extinguish the claim rather than merely barring it, so build the transfer inventory early.
See unwinding fraudulent transfers and the diligent creditor rule, our note on dissolution and individual liability of principals, and our fraudulent transfers practice. Where a business is operating but dissipating value, a receiver over the debtor’s property can preserve it, and our receiverships team handles the appointment.
What If the Judgment Came From Another State?
Record it first. Florida lets a creditor record a certified copy of an out-of-state judgment with the clerk of the circuit court, along with an affidavit giving the last known addresses of both parties, after which it is enforced the same as a Florida judgment.
No execution or other enforcement process may issue until thirty days after the clerk mails notice of the recording to the debtor, and until the clerk’s service charge is paid. Our domestication of foreign judgments primer and domesticating foreign judgments practice page cover the objection window.
Three Enforcement Mistakes Worth Avoiding
- Omitting the address. Without the lienholder’s address in the judgment or a simultaneously recorded affidavit, the recording creates no real property lien, and the same condition applies on rerecording.
- Filing the personal property certificate too early. A certificate filed before finality, or while a rehearing motion or stay is pending, is permanently void.
- Filing only one lien. A Department of State certificate does nothing for real property, and a county recording does nothing for accounts and receivables.
Talk to a Florida Judgment Collection Attorney
Jimerson Birr represents businesses, banks, and private lenders in commercial enforcement matters statewide. Our accounts receivable and judgment collections and business litigation teams handle execution, garnishment, liens, proceedings supplementary, and transfer claims. If you are holding an unsatisfied judgment and need to collect a judgment in Florida, contact us to review the debtor’s assets and the tools available to reach them.