i won a court settlement, but can't locate the person who owes me!?

Question

does anyone know any phone numbers of companies who track down people who got sued, and are on the run??
thanks!

Answer 1

You can use a skip tracer -- but you can do it yourself.

First, make yourself familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act -- don't violate their rules (although in some instances you can, it never works well.)

Start by doing a google search of the last known location of the individual. Like John Smith in Los Angeles, CA. Then, see if you can find them from there.

Answer 2

Congratulations on your win, now for the bitter pill of reality -- there is a very good chance you will never be able to collect any, let alone all of what's owed to you. Here's why:

1. You don't know where the debtor is. It will cost you money to find him.

2. If you find him, he will very likely move again. It will cost you money to find him again.

3. If he has moved to a different state, your judgment probably isn't going to be any good. It will cost you money to get what is known as a "sister-state judgment" to pursue collection in his new state of residence.

4. If you garnish his wages, he will likely quit his job. And, oh, by the way, it will cost you money to garnish his wages; and to track him down again at his new job.

5. He probably doesn't own any property that you can lien. If he does own property, it will cost you money to locate it and place the lien.

6. If you hire a collection agent (the best option*) to do all of this for you, they will keep a big percentage (up to 50%) of what they collect as their fee. *If you use self-help collection (i.e., you do it yourself), you run the risk of violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and your debtor can sue you.

7. When all else fails, he will take bankruptcy and the debt he owes to you will be discharged, it will go down the same hole as the money you spent finding him, garnishing his wages and liening his property.

I owned a rental home and my tenants stopped paying their rent because it "wasn't convenient" to make the payments (the Judge said he'd never heard that defense before). I filed an eviction action and won -- it took ten months to get them out of the house -- she was pregnant and I wasn't allowed to evict them while she was pregnant because it caused her to be stressed. After she had the baby, it was still winter and the judge thought it would be too difficult to have to move in the wnter with a new baby In addition to the rent they didn't pay, they did nearly $10,000.00 in damage to the house. My attorney fees and court costs exceeded $8,000.00. I eventually got judgments against them for everything -- almost $25,000.00 plus interest. I got less than $1,500.00 through garnishment before they filed bankruptcy and walked away.

I also work for an attorney and have seen this happen time after time. Getting the judgment is the easy part. Getting the money is the hard part.

Sorry.

http://www.nolo.com/resource.cfm/catID/697A614B-B8AD-43EB-BE4B39DA5E65686B/104/308/191/

Answer 3

Look up "skip tracers" or debt collectors. You'll have to pay expenses as well as a percentage of the amount you get - if the guy has any assets. Is it worth it?

Can't give you any phone numbers, since you are one of those people who think where they are is the whole universe.

Answer 4

is this small claims? You must collect that yourself. If it's not small claims, the court system may help you.

Try calling a private investigator.

Answer 5

You had an attorney --- what did he say??? Private Dectives in the phone book...

Answer 6

IF he has nothing thats what you will get>>?

Answer 7

How convenient.

Answer 8

Sorry no