Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Indiana

Re: Collecting a Judgment in Indiana

About all you can do is wait. The cars are personal property. Indiana law exempts from collection $4,000.00 worth of personal property. That is fair market value - what the property can be sold for- and so think of garage sale amounts. So if all of either person's personal property does not equal $4,000.00, then you cannot touch the car.

A word about body attachments, if the girl gets picked up for something she gets a trip to jail. I know very few sheriffs who want civil prisoners in their jails. In short, they will not go looking for her but will keep her if she is found. It is now a waiting game. However, you might not be aware that the judgment has interest on it. If I recall correctly, 6% per year of simple interest (not compound).

Re: Collecting a Judgment in Indiana

Practically speaking, contact these people now. This is income tax refund time. Offer to accept a lump sum for less than what is owed. Otherwise you may wait a long time.

The body attachment is a good thing to have. However, it is rare that a sheriff's office will execute on those unless they are arresting her for some other reason or have a traffic stop.

Too little manpower and too much crime for them to make a special trip to execute the warrant.

Based on the charachteristics of most deadbeat tenants, it is unlikely that they have vehicles worth selling after the personal propety exemption applies. However, if they do own a vehicle with some value, you might be better off trying to negotiate a trade of the vehicle for the debt.