Your files should obviously contain a complete copy of everything in the case file from the court. Most importantly is the a copy of the actual judgment itself. Your judgment collection success will be aided by your keeping all pertinent information about your judgment where you can access it easily.

Make sure your file contains the case number of your lawsuit. You’ll need it when you file documents related to execution of your judgment. Keep the date of your judgment handy also. You need to notate the amount of money awarded to you. Along with this, you will want to keep a record of any court costs, attorney’s fees, or other costs that you may be able to collect from your debtor. Make sure you are accurate in calculating the amount of post judgment interest that you can also collect.

Keep a good record of how much your judgment debtor owes and how much money you have successfully collected.

Of course you will need to collect and maintain important information about your debtor. It will be important to discover any and every name that your debtor may use – now or in the past. Make an effort to obtain the names of any current and former spouses of your debtor. You will need to have records of addresses of the debtor. If your debtor is a person, rather than a corporation or other entity, you’ll want mailing addresses, as well as residential locations. Be sure and list the county that corresponds to each address you find. Telephone numbers and email addresses will be important to obtain. Home phone, work phone, office phone, cell phone, spouse’s phone, and any other telephone number that relates to your debtor needs to be discovered and notated in your files. Without a doubt you need to have the debtor’s Social Security number, spouse’s Social Security number, or FEIN if that applies. Also, if your debtor is represented by an attorney, you must have the attorney’s name, attorney’s address, and telephone number. It might come in handy to have an email address for the attorney. In your file you need to have the debtor’s driver’s license number and the state where it was issued. Dates of birth for the debtor and spouse will also be important to keep.

You will need to find out the debtor’s place of employment. I also like to find out the previous employment information if I can discover it.

If you start your files by collecting this information, you will be headed in the right direction. Anything you come across concerning your debtor, his assets, or your judgment, needs to be saved and organized in your files. Don’t lose any info. You never know what small seemingly insignificant thing will be critical to the successful collection of your judgment. Make it easy on yourself so that you can enforce your judgment without stressing over lack of organization.