Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

I won a Civil Law Suit in New York in 1998. How to collect the award?


Asked on 9/18/11, 7:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Kevin Connolly Kevin J. Connolly

You probably don't. If the judgment was docketed, it would have been a lien for ten years. That has expired. Your judgment is subject to a 20-year statute of limitations, but since it has been more than 10 year since you recovered the judgment, you now need to bring a new lawsuit on the judgment. Since you have not had the guts to enforce it before, I doubt that you will spend the money now.....especially since now, you will need to convince an attorney (and then the clerk of the court) that you are the same person.

Get a clue here: if you're trolling for old, abandoned judgments thinking you can enforce them, my suggestion is don't try. You'll be walking straight into an identity theft prosecution. ID theft is at least a class D felony (2-1/3 to 7) and you MUST do time inside: only misdemeanors and E felonies can get off with probation. And I can assure you that any court clerk will probe you on this because as under these kinds of facts, the clerk can earn brownie points for moving up the ladder within the Civil Service branch of the office.

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Answered on 9/20/11, 4:44 pm


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