How judgment collection actually works in Florida — garnishment, liens, exemptions, post-judgment remedies — and how selling a judgment differs from hiring someone to collect it. No filler.
These are the questions Florida judgment holders actually ask. The first section explains what AllClear Judgment Recovery does; the rest is general information about Florida judgment collection and enforcement, based on Florida law as of 2026. Nothing here is legal advice — if you need legal counsel, hire a licensed Florida attorney. AllClear Judgment Recovery is not a law firm and does not represent sellers. It buys qualifying Florida judgments and enforces them as owner, for its own account.
We buy Florida judgments. AllClear Judgment Recovery evaluates qualifying unpaid Florida civil judgments and, where the numbers work, purchases them outright under a written purchase agreement and assignment of judgment. The seller is paid the agreed purchase consideration at closing and steps out of the matter entirely.
After that assignment closes, we are the judgment owner. Skip tracing, asset investigation, writs of garnishment and execution, judgment liens, sheriff coordination, proceedings supplementary, contested hearings, and the eventual satisfaction filing are all ours — undertaken for our own account, not on a seller's behalf. We are not your collector, your agent, or your law firm. We are the buyer.
No — and the difference matters, so it is worth being precise about it.
"No recovery, no fee" describes a contingency collection arrangement. Under that model a firm collects on the creditor's behalf, keeps an agreed percentage of whatever comes in, and remits the balance. The creditor stays the judgment creditor the entire time, keeps the upside if the recovery is large, and gets nothing if the recovery is zero. Plenty of firms work that way. It is a legitimate structure.
AllClear Judgment Recovery does not work that way. We buy the judgment. There is no percentage split, no fee, and no net-recovery calculation, because there is no collection being performed for you. You are paid the agreed purchase consideration at closing, the judgment is assigned to us, and the matter is closed on your side.
Purchase terms are specific to the judgment: its age, the amount, the court, the debtor's asset picture, prior enforcement history, and how clean the chain of title is. There is no standard figure and we do not quote one before reviewing a file. Submit the judgment and we will tell you whether it qualifies and, if so, what we would pay.
A collection agency works your account for you. You remain the creditor, you stay in the loop, you wait for results, and you receive whatever is collected less their fee. Most agencies focus on pre-judgment debt — letters, credit reporting, negotiation — and do not file writs, attend debtor examinations, or execute sheriff's levies.
Selling a judgment ends your involvement instead of managing it. AllClear Judgment Recovery deals exclusively in adjudicated Florida judgments, and buys them rather than servicing them. Once the assignment is recorded, the post-judgment machinery — writs of garnishment, writs of execution, proceedings supplementary under §56.29, debtor examinations under oath — is run by us, at our expense, on our own behalf. You are not waiting on a report, and you are not exposed if the file goes nowhere.
An action on a Florida judgment may generally be brought within 20 years under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(1), and under Fla. Stat. § 55.081 no judgment remains a lien on real or personal property after 20 years from the date of entry. Post-judgment tools — garnishments, levies, discovery, liens — are available during that window.
A judgment lien attaches to the debtor's non-exempt property and establishes priority against later creditors. Two categories in Florida:
Priority generally runs from the date of recording, so on a judgment we have purchased we record promptly. Once a lien is properly recorded, the debtor ordinarily cannot convey clear title to the encumbered property without the lien being satisfied or otherwise resolved. Florida's homestead protection may apply to a primary residence.
Florida post-judgment interest accrues at a statutory rate set quarterly by the Florida Chief Financial Officer under Fla. Stat. § 55.03, running from the date of judgment entry. The rate effective July 1, 2026 is 8.06% per annum. Because the rate resets each quarter, an accurate balance is built period by period rather than by applying a single rate across the whole span. Florida post-judgment interest is simple interest, not compounded.
The judgment itself does not evaporate from inactivity — what runs out are the liens and the usable information. A recorded real property lien is effective 10 years and may be extended once by re-recording within the statutory window (Fla. Stat. § 55.10). A Judgment Lien Certificate on personal property is effective 5 years, with one permitted second filing (Fla. Stat. §§ 55.202–55.204). Miss those windows and the lien lapses — the judgment survives, but the priority position it held against other creditors does not.
Note also that Florida courts have held that dismissal for lack of prosecution under Rule 1.420(e) is aimed at cases that have not yet reached judgment, and at least one district court of appeal has held the rule is not implicated once a final money judgment has been entered. If someone has told you your entered judgment is about to be dismissed for inactivity, get that checked by a Florida attorney before acting on it. If the judgment is simply going nowhere and you would rather convert it, submit it for a purchase review.
Yes. Florida's Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act allows domestication of judgments from other U.S. states. Once domesticated by filing in a Florida court, the judgment carries the same force as one originally entered here and is subject to all Florida enforcement tools — garnishments, levies, liens.
Foreign-country judgments may also be recognized under comity principles, though additional scrutiny applies. If the debtor has assets in Florida and you hold a judgment from another jurisdiction, tell us at submission — whether a judgment has been domesticated, and how cleanly, affects whether it qualifies for purchase.
Yes. Florida allows a continuing writ of wage garnishment for civil judgments. The federal CCPA limit applies — up to 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount by which earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, whichever is less.
The head-of-family exemption is the primary defense debtors use: wages at or below $750 per week are fully protected if the debtor is the head of a household providing more than half the support for a dependent. This exemption evaporates if the debtor voluntarily waived it in writing at the time of the original debt.
When wage garnishment applies, it continues — deducted from each paycheck — until the judgment is satisfied or the debtor changes employers and the writ must be re-served.
Yes. A writ of garnishment served on a financial institution freezes all non-exempt funds on deposit at the moment of service. The bank is required to hold those funds and report the balance to the court. After exemption claims are resolved — typically 20 days — the non-exempt portion is turned over to satisfy the judgment.
The key variables: identifying the correct bank and branch, timing the writ to maximize the balance captured, and anticipating the debtor's exemption claims. Funds derived from Social Security, certain pension income, and other protected sources are exempt.
Florida has some of the broadest debtor exemptions in the country. Common protected categories:
Exemptions are asserted by the debtor and, where contested, resolved by the court. Debtors sometimes claim more than the law allows, and an improper claim can be challenged through the court process — but whether a challenge succeeds depends on the facts and the record.
Under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.560, a judgment creditor may require the debtor to complete a Fact Information Sheet — a court-ordered sworn disclosure of income, assets, employment, bank accounts, and property. It is one of the more useful post-judgment discovery tools, because it puts the debtor's asset picture on the record under oath rather than leaving it to assertion.
If a debtor does not comply, the judgment creditor may move for an order to show cause. What follows is up to the court: it may compel compliance, and Florida courts have authority to impose sanctions or make civil contempt findings where the record supports them. Outcomes vary case by case and nothing is automatic — a court decides.
"I have nothing" is an assertion, not a finding. It gets tested with skip tracing, public records, employment indicators, property searches, UCC filings, and court-ordered post-judgment discovery. Non-exempt assets acquired after the judgment was entered — real estate, business interests, and the like — generally remain reachable during the enforcement window.
Where a debtor ignores court orders such as a Fact Information Sheet, an order to appear, or a deposition notice, the judgment owner may move for an order to show cause. A Florida court has authority to compel compliance and, where the record supports it, to impose sanctions or make civil contempt findings. Those are judicial decisions, not foregone conclusions.
Sometimes the investigation confirms there is nothing reachable. That is a real outcome, and it is one of the main reasons a judgment may not qualify for purchase.
At minimum:
We run our own investigation regardless, but known starting points shorten the review. We will also want to confirm that you hold the judgment, that it has not already been assigned, satisfied, or partially paid, and that there is no bankruptcy or appeal pending — clean title to the judgment is a condition of any purchase.
Start with our judgment purchase review form — it captures what we need for an initial assessment, at no cost and with no obligation to sell.
Longer than most judgment holders expect, and it varies too much to put a number on. Anyone quoting you a standard timeline is guessing.
What actually drives it: whether the debtor has a known employer or identifiable account at the outset, or whether that has to be built from scratch through investigation; whether the debtor asserts exemptions such as head-of-family or homestead, and whether those are contested; whether real property is involved and whether it is homestead; whether the debtor is an individual or an entity; whether assets have been transferred and a fraudulent transfer claim is needed; whether the debtor responds to post-judgment discovery at all; and whether a bankruptcy filing intervenes.
A file where the employer and bank are known at the start behaves very differently from one where the debtor has closed accounts, moved, or reorganized a business. Both exist. Neither is the "typical" case.
That transfer of uncertainty is the point of the purchase model. It is also why the purchase amount reflects the risk being assumed.
An automatic stay halts most collection activity immediately upon filing, and active writs must be paused. That is a shift in arena rather than an automatic end to the debt.
Certain debts are not dischargeable — including some based on fraud or willful and malicious injury under 11 U.S.C. § 523 — and where a debt survives discharge, enforcement may resume once the stay lifts. Whether a specific judgment is dischargeable is a legal question decided on the record in the bankruptcy case, and it is not something anyone can tell you with certainty in advance.
If you are selling: a pending or likely bankruptcy materially affects whether a judgment qualifies for purchase and what it is worth. Disclose it at submission. If a bankruptcy surfaces after we own the judgment, it is our problem to manage.
It is an asset sale, documented in two pieces.
The purchase agreement sets the terms: the purchase consideration, what you are representing about the judgment, and the conditions to closing. Those representations matter — typically that you hold the judgment, that it is valid and unsatisfied, that it has not been previously assigned, that any partial payments are disclosed, and that no appeal or bankruptcy is pending that you know of.
The assignment of judgment transfers ownership. Once executed and recorded with the appropriate Clerk of Courts, AllClear Judgment Recovery becomes the judgment holder of record. From that point we enforce in our own name, as owner, for our own account. You are not a party to it and you are not asked to appear, sign writs, or participate.
You are paid the purchase consideration at closing. There is no later true-up, no percentage split, and no net-recovery calculation — if we recover more than we paid, that is our gain; if we recover nothing, that is our loss. Nothing is binding until both documents are signed.
It comes down to two things: whether the debtor has discoverable non-exempt assets, and whether the judgment itself is clean.
No-cost purchase review, no obligation to sell. We tell you whether the judgment qualifies and, if it does, what we would pay for it. Call or submit the details online.
407.855.8504 Submit Judgment for Purchase Review