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7 Critical Mistakes Judgment Creditors Make Attempting to Collect Their Judgment – Mistake #5

There are seven critical mistakes judgment creditors make when attempting to collect their judgment. We’ll be discussing each mistake in detail… and how to correct it. Last week, we covered mistake #4: Not Understanding That the Court Does Not Make The Judgement Debtor Pay The Judgement. Now, let’s identify the problem we are dealing with this week.

MISTAKE #5: WASTING SIGNIFICANT MONEY ATTEMPTING TO COLLECT FROM A JUDGMENT DEBTOR THAT “HAS NO ASSETS”

Even if all the facts are on your side, regardless of how much you may have been embezzled out of or how much you may have been awarded in the contract dispute, it is usually of little consequence if you win a significant judgment if your debtor truly has no assets and no prospects of having significant assets in the future.

Prior to filing a complaint, an astute plaintiff and her attorney will obtain a financial forensic viability report to determine if the target has sufficient assets that can be reached to satisfy the claim, should a judgment be entered. Should it be determined that your target actually has no assets, you can save yourself untold heartache, time and money chasing a debtor that has no money to satisfy your judgment. You need NOT be in the 80% who never collect their judgment. If adequate assets are located, the plaintiff can proceed comfortably knowing that there appears to be sufficient assets to justify the litigation. Should these assets dissipate prior to recovery, you often have a good basis to initiate a fraudulent transfer investigation.

An investment in the financial forensic viability research and report, and consulting with experienced experts is always wise. When you obtain your judgment, you have a great start for the more in-depth financial forensic research to locate and document assets to execute upon toward the satisfaction of your judgment. Knowing what types of assets are available for recovery helps in deciding which post judgment commercial collection attorney you need to retain. The assets located in the preliminary research may be anywhere in the world so you may need help in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, The Isle of Mann, the Virgin Islands, or Texas and Florida. You must have the right forensic research and enforcement team with the right contacts, skills and experience to be successful. You may need experience with oil and gas cases, commercial real estate, or securities. From the preliminary financial forensic report, you will be able to assemble the right team of experts to get the job done properly and as efficiently as possible.

You must recognize that the truly sophisticated debtor is well-positioned to appear to have no assets. They may have entities domiciled in Nevada, Wyoming and in offshore asset protection havens. These entities will be controlled by nominee officers, directors, and/or trustees of irrevocable offshore asset protection trusts. Getting past these professional gatekeepers is not a task to be taken lightly, but it can be done.

Your professional asset recovery and competitive intelligence team are equipped to locate, document, and work in tandem with a carefully selected, highly skilled and specialized attorneys to recover these deeply buried assets. Investing money to locate assets for recovery is NOT THE MISTAKE. THE REAL MISTAKE IS NOT ENSURING YOU ARE INVESTING WITH THE TRULY SEASONED EXPERTS WHO HAVE A TRACK RECORD OF LOCATING AND RECOVERING THE ASSET THAT EVERYONE KNOWS THE DEBTOR “DOES NOT HAVE.”

You don’t go to your family doctor for heart bypass surgery—you get the best heart specialist money can buy. Use the same good judgment when your financial life is at stake—do your due diligence and engage only the best team of experts you can find to recover your money.

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Financial Forensic Services, LLC is proud to staff Certified Fraud Examiners

Testimonial

“Joe Dickerson is the industry standard. You can measure the rest by what he does, and I say that without equivocation. Joe has incredible insight into the dark world of fraud. He understands the devious ways in which people perpetrate white-collar crime.”

Jan Schlichtman
, Attorney at Law

2014-11-11T18:20:55+00:00

Jan Schlichtman
, Attorney at Law

“Joe Dickerson is the industry standard. You can measure the rest by what he does, and I say that without equivocation. Joe has incredible insight into the dark world of fraud. He understands the devious ways in which people perpetrate white-collar crime.”

“As an environmental law firm, we use Joe Dickerson to locate prior business owners and do corporate genealogies. He is persistent, that’s the key to a good investigator, and he has a knack for understanding how people move money and do business. That tells him what rocks to look under. Joe is vastly superior to other investigators in two ways: he lets you know what’s going on and he’s honest with you, because he tells you if there’s really anything there worth pursuing. He is unusually thorough and creative finding people. Joe has earned his fee every time.” “If the information is to be found, then I believe that they will find it. Their service enabled me to do a much better job for my client.”

Tim Gabelhouse
, Attorney at Law

2014-11-11T18:20:41+00:00

Tim Gabelhouse
, Attorney at Law

“As an environmental law firm, we use Joe Dickerson to locate prior business owners and do corporate genealogies. He is persistent, that’s the key to a good investigator, and he has a knack for understanding how people move money and do business. That tells him what rocks to look under. Joe is vastly superior to other investigators in two ways: he lets you know what’s going on and he’s honest with you, because he tells you if there’s really anything there worth pursuing. He is unusually thorough and creative finding people. Joe has earned his fee every time.” “If the information is to be found, then I believe that they will find it. Their service enabled me to do a much better job for my client.”

“Joe is the most competent investigator I’ve ever found. He has rare ability to find hidden assets. Others claim it, Joe has it. He understands the Rules of Evidence, he knows how to talk to people to develop a fact pattern, and he has a sixth sense for fraud. Joe has unquestioned integrity and delivers value for his services.”

Andrew Quiat
, Attorney

2014-11-11T18:12:51+00:00

Andrew Quiat
, Attorney

“Joe is the most competent investigator I’ve ever found. He has rare ability to find hidden assets. Others claim it, Joe has it. He understands the Rules of Evidence, he knows how to talk to people to develop a fact pattern, and he has a sixth sense for fraud. Joe has unquestioned integrity and delivers value for his services.”

“When I was general counsel for First Interstate Bank, I used Joe Dickerson for locating assets, investigating behavior and asset discovery. He did excellent work and always got the information I needed without compromising the bank in any way. He’s more thorough and kept in better touch with me than other investigators. I’d give him a grade of 96 or 97 out of 100.”

Frank Brainerd, Retired
Banker/Attorney

2014-11-11T18:20:20+00:00

Frank Brainerd, Retired
Banker/Attorney

“When I was general counsel for First Interstate Bank, I used Joe Dickerson for locating assets, investigating behavior and asset discovery. He did excellent work and always got the information I needed without compromising the bank in any way. He’s more thorough and kept in better touch with me than other investigators. I’d give him a grade of 96 or 97 out of 100.”

“Financial Forensic Services did an excellent job in the way they executed my case. They were very straightforward. They stated what they could do for us and they did it. And, from a personal standpoint, they are excellent. Both my wife and I felt very comfortable working with them.”

Michael Whalen, 
Businessman

2014-11-11T18:21:13+00:00

Michael Whalen, 
Businessman

“Financial Forensic Services did an excellent job in the way they executed my case. They were very straightforward. They stated what they could do for us and they did it. And, from a personal standpoint, they are excellent. Both my wife and I felt very comfortable working with them.”

“Joe spends the time to understand the problem from the client’s perspective and from the legal perspective. He is intelligent, tenacious, willing to work as hard as it takes, thorough, well-informed, and just awfully good at what he does.”

Thomas E. Root, 
Attorney

2014-11-11T18:20:05+00:00

Thomas E. Root, 
Attorney

“Joe spends the time to understand the problem from the client’s perspective and from the legal perspective. He is intelligent, tenacious, willing to work as hard as it takes, thorough, well-informed, and just awfully good at what he does.”

“They went overboard in providing excellent service. I was very pleased with what they provided for me as their end product. Financial Forensic Services really understands how a case needs to be put together in order to be presented to a jury. Their PowerPoint presentation tied everything together. It was thorough, it was concise, and it got the job done.”

Jim Thomas
, Prosecuting Attorney

2014-11-11T18:21:32+00:00

Jim Thomas
, Prosecuting Attorney

“They went overboard in providing excellent service. I was very pleased with what they provided for me as their end product. Financial Forensic Services really understands how a case needs to be put together in order to be presented to a jury. Their PowerPoint presentation tied everything together. It was thorough, it was concise, and it got the job done.”

” I was prepared to dismiss a federal case involving millions of dollars against a local individual who claimed to have no substantial assets. After your staff hit the records and delved into the transactions behind the transactions, you discovered the individual to actually be worth a few million dollars. We continued the case to conclusion. We were also very happy with the financial background examinations you conducted of the former directors of two failed national banks. The heart of any civil case is whether there is a pot at the end of the lawsuit. You were our lucky leprechaun in finding such pots.”

R. Michael Sentel
, Former Section Chief Legal Division, FDIC

2014-11-11T18:13:08+00:00

R. Michael Sentel
, Former Section Chief Legal Division, FDIC

” I was prepared to dismiss a federal case involving millions of dollars against a local individual who claimed to have no substantial assets. After your staff hit the records and delved into the transactions behind the transactions, you discovered the individual to actually be worth a few million dollars. We continued the case to conclusion. We were also very happy with the financial background examinations you conducted of the former directors of two failed national banks. The heart of any civil case is whether there is a pot at the end of the lawsuit. You were our lucky leprechaun in finding such pots.”