The stance that you need to take concerning your post judgment settlement agreement is to be absolutely firm with your debtor. Be sure that there is no misunderstanding in the judgment debtor’s mind about your expectations of complete and timely adherence to all of the terms of the agreement. Never give the other party any hint that you will tolerate anything less than what the settlement agreement states. The first time that your adversary gets the feeling that he can stray from the precise terms of the agreement without suffering any consequences, we can almost guarantee that he will soon test you to find out if his feelings are valid. You won’t like facing this situation!

Because of our experiences with judgment debtors and post judgment settlement agreements, we can confidently offer you this opinion. When you commit your agreement to written form, be sure to include verbiage which clarifies the fact that failure by the debtor to adhere to all of the terms of the agreement will automatically result in specific consequences.

The specific consequences may be anything that is lawful and which both parties are willing to accept as part of the written settlement agreement. A typical example would be a situation where a discount of judgment interest is a part of the agreement. If the judgment debtor fails to meet a judgment payment deadline, the discount of interest would be disallowed.

Consequences that are “very” real and especially consequences that hit the debtor “in the pocketbook” will go a long way to help you get all of your settlement payments and get them on time as agreed. You can be creative in constructing specific consequences, but definitely be clear and firm.

In every communication with your judgment debtor reaffirm your expectation that the precise terms of the post judgment settlement agreement must be adhered to.

Here’s hoping you get all that your judgment payments!