Practice Areas

Post judgment collections

Texas provides various means to aid in the collection of debts that have been reduced to judgments.  These are generally called post judgment remedies and include, among others, execution, garnishment, turnover and judgment liens.

Execution:

An execution is the judgment enforcement process by which a judicial writ is issued directing a sheriff or constable to seize a debtors nonexempt property (corporate entities do not have exempt property), sell it and deliver the proceeds to the judgment creditor to be applied toward satisfaction of the judgment.

Garnishment:

Wages are exempt from most creditors in Texas and cannot be garnished.  Cash in any form, however, is not exempt.  Like pre-judgment garnishments, post-judgment garnishments involve the process by which a creditor seeks to obtain money or property of a third party which is owed by that party to the debtor. 

The garnishment process involves the filing of a separate lawsuit in the same court as the underlying judgment.  The third party holding money or property for the judgment debtor is sued as the garnishee and a garnishment judgment is obtained which orders the garnishee to turn over the money or property to the judgment creditor.  The most common example of a post-judgment garnishment occurs when a judgment creditor sues the judgmentdebtor's bank which is holding funds for the judgment debtor. 

Turnover:

Turnover is the remedy provided by Texas law which entitles the judgment creditor to aid from the courts through injunction or other means, to satisfy its judgment if the judgment debtor owns nonexempt property that cannot readily be levied on or attached by ordinary legal process.

The court may order the judgment debtor to turn over property that is in the judgment debtor=s possession or subject to its control.  The court may also appoint a receiver and grant the receiver authority to take possession of the property, sell it, and pay the proceeds to the judgment creditor toward satisfaction of the judgment.   The turnover procedure is typically used to obtain accounts receivable, property located outside the state, rents and property being secreted by the judgment debtor.

To speak to a knowledgeable, dedicated and aggressive Dallas-Fort Worth Texas commercial debt collection attorney at Bristol & Dubiel LLP please call our office at (214) 880-9988, or if you prefer, contact us through this Web site and a lawyer from our office will contact you promptly.

At the Law Office of Bristol & Dubiel LLP, our Texas debt collection lawyers provide effective representation for businesses seeking the collection of debts in Texas and Oklahoma.  In addition to serving our home area of Dallas-Fort Worth office, we also serve the surrounding communities including Irving, Garland, Arlington, Mesquite, Richardson, Rockwall, Greenville, Plano, Denton, Carrollton, Addison, Grand Prairie, Lewisville, McKinney, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Richland Hills, North Richland Hills, Highland Park, University Park, Allen, Southlake, Carroll, Coppell, Flower Mound, Grapevine, The Colony, Frisco, Colleyville, Rowlett, Trophy Club, Rowlett, Parker, Murphy and Highland Village.  We serve Dallas County, Tarrant County, Denton County, Collin County, Hunt County, Rockwall County, and Ellis County.