Statute of Limitations for a Judgement

Submitted by Optimal-Nose1092 t3_10j5equ in washingtondc

Hi All, we have a family friend who won a judgement from DC for a bad contractor/scam. Fast forward 20 years, the gentleman is in his 60's and has not been able to recover anything. I don't have all the details but I think he had a court appointed attorney for the case and he lost the attorney when the case was over. The judgement is for a sizable amount. If he is able to recover even half the amount it would make a difference in his life. Is there a time limit on when he can recover the funds? Hoping some legal experts can chime in. Thanks.

13

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

shazbadam t1_j5imagm wrote

Sorry, judgments in D.C. have a 12-year lifetime (unless a revival motion is filed to extend it before the judgment expires). See D.C. Code § 15-101.

20

Optimal-Nose1092 OP t1_j5imxmn wrote

Thanks. Do you know if there is anyway to check and see if the judgement is still active. He mentioned that he checks on it but I am not sure what that means. This is so sad. This contractor did shoddy work after a fire and he has never had the money since then to fix his home.

5

ekkidee t1_j5jrf5i wrote

Unless the judgement was vacated on appeal, it's still on record. You (or the attorney) would have been notified about that. There's no real concept of "active", and collection action on it is no longer possible due to the fact that the SOL has expired.

Your friend learned the hard way how difficult it is to collect on court-ordered judgments. The plaintiff must be active in pursuing the judgment and cannot let it slide. That's why a lot of judgments are sold to debt collectors (typically for about 15-20%, depending on the defendant and nature of the debt).

8

FourFingeredBertans t1_j5js4k1 wrote

Might be worth looking at DC's unclaimed property website in case they were successful in pursuing a judgment but not disbursing it

3

Formergr t1_j5kkn8o wrote

I was just going to suggest this. It's really easy to use, and I found $400 last year just typing my name in that I had no idea about (unrelated to a judgment, but you never know what might be there).

3