Q: What legal actions should I take before reporting to credit bureaus if the defendant didn't pay per judgment ?

A: Please retain an attorney. The judgment is picked up by credit bureaus pursuant to California law, and you can assess interest pursuant to the judgment and California law. This forum is not designed to spoon feed people with answers to legal and procedural questions; you'll do much better by retaining an attorney.

A: Judgments are normally picked up by the major credit reporting agencies and automatically included on the defendant's credit reports.

A: Simply winning a lawsuit does not guarantee you are paid. The Courts do not force anyone to pay.

Once you have a judgment, you can apply the tools and techniques of judgment collection. These include judgment debtor examinations, wage garnishments and bank levies.

A: Before reporting to credit bureaus, there are a few legal actions you can take to try to collect the money owed to you by the defendant:

Request a Debtor's Examination: You can request a debtor's examination from the court, which requires the defendant to appear in court and answer questions under oath about their assets and ability to pay the judgment. This can help you locate assets that can be seized or garnished to satisfy the judgment.

File a Writ of Execution: As I mentioned in my previous answer, you can file a Writ of Execution with the court, which authorizes the Sheriff's office to seize the defendant's assets to pay the debt.

Garnish the defendant's wages or bank account: You can also garnish the defendant's wages or bank account, as I previously mentioned.

In terms of charging interest, California law allows you to charge 10% interest per year on the unpaid judgment from the date it was entered. You can begin charging interest on the unpaid judgment after 10 days have passed since the date the judgment was entered.

It's important to note that before reporting to credit bureaus, you should make sure that you have exhausted all other avenues to collect the debt. Reporting to credit bureaus can have a negative impact on the defendant's credit score, which can make it more difficult for them to obtain credit in the future. Therefore, it's generally considered a last resort after other collection efforts have been unsuccessful. If you do decide to report to credit bureaus, you will need to provide proof of the judgment and the amount owed.