Collecting on a Judgment Where the Defendant's Name is Misspelled

[MetalMan390]

My question involves judgment recovery in the State of: Florida

When I moved out of the duplex I was renting 2 years ago, my landlord never gave me back my security deposit. The property was in better shape when I left it than it was when I moved in (painted the inside, cleaned, fixed holes in the wall, etc). But that's besides the point, because she never inspected the property after I moved out (I asked her) and after 30 days she had not mailed or even verbally said that she intended to make a claim on my security deposit, waiving her right to it in any way. She gave me the runaround for a few months before I hired an attorney to go after it in small claims court.

My attorney was extremely slow about everything he did, but finally we won in court because she never showed up for the hearing and a default judgment was issued in my favor(took my attorney almost a year to do this). The total amount for the judgment is around $1000. This was over a year ago, and the lawyer has not done anything since. He stopped taking my calls and responded to my emails(sent one every week or two) every 4 months or so, saying that in order to collect we need to do this and that, and I said ok, let's do that... only to never hear anything back!

Finally, I got tired of being ignored and I decided to start trying to collect myself. I searched the court's records and found that my lawyer misspelled the defendant's last name on the judgment (and ALL other paperwork has the correct spelling of her name), so basically I have a judgment against someone who does not exist! I put in several motions to the judge to change the spelling of the defendant's name, but the judge keeps denying the motions and refuses to give me a reason. I later found out that I can't file a motion to change her name on the judgment because too much time has passed since the judgment was issued.

On another forum they are telling me that it should not be a problem collecting on this judgment because all of the other paperwork previously mailed to her regarding this case was spelled correctly and although she did not respond to anything, she signed for the stuff that was sent to her according to the court's records. from what i can tell, she was properly served all of the necessary papers... i asked the court what constitutes "properly served" and they said regular mail, certified mail, and process server. everything the court sent out was regular mail, and everything the lawyer sent was certified mail.

So, I ant to make sure that collecting on this judgment should not be a problem before I waste money go after it. Also, what is the best way to collect on this judgment? the defendant owns several rental properties, and has a few cars worth around $5k each... i verified all the vehicles she owns through the state of Florida DMV records, I have a way to do this She is self employed and head of the household so I don't think I can garnish any wages. I don't know what s she has in any bank accounts. I was thinking the best way to go about it is get a writ of execution to seize on of her cars, but it's a $1000 deposit to do that so I want to be 100% sure that the misspelled name is not an issue.

Any input on my situation would be great. Thanks for taking the time to read through this.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If the only issue is that there's a typo in the judgment, but the correct person was served and there's a correct caption on every other document, simply make sure that the name on any orders of garnishment or execution is correct. You need to identify and pursue non-exempt assets. I can't promise that she has any, although if she's a landlord it is difficult to believe that she has no bank accounts or equipment.

[MetalMan390]

thanks... what is the correct way of determining what she has in her bank accounts? i know what vehicles she has but would rather go after banks accounts before seizing a car and hoping it brings enough at auction to cover the judgment AND the sheriff's $1,000 deposit

[MetalMan390]

nobody knows how to verify how much she has in her checking accounts and who she banks with?

[Mr. Knowitall]

Hold a creditor's exam in the court that issued the judgment.

[answersifind]

There are some old school methods of verifying where she banks, one of which the plaintiff may have in here records (cashed check copy).

[United Armor]

Debtor exams rarely work. If the debtor tells you that she does her banking, for example at Chase, they can simply open up a different account somewhere else right after the exam is over, and it will be perfectly legal! The best way to find out where someone banks is to first navigate public records to see if your debtor is involved in other cases. You also said that she owns several rental properties. You can subpoena the tenants to give you recent canceled rent checks. There are so many other ways you can uncover banking information, I can go on forever! Good Luck!

[MetalMan390]

thanks for the replies. i'm getting ready to move across country and won't be around to handle this anymore, and have a few more questions.

at this point, things don't seem to be going to well for the landlord, as i have noticed she moved out of her primary residence and into one of her multi-unit rental properties. the vehicles she has probably aren't worth as much as i previously thought, and they won't bring enough at auction from what the sheriff said anyways. i would bid on the vehicle i wanted to levy and resell but i will not be around to do it, so that's out of the question.

i was able to get a lien on 4 of her properties and the lien is in her CORRECT spelled name, as well as the judgment lien certificate filed with the state of florida, that is also in her CORRECT spelled name. all i did was file these with the correct spelling of her name, and they ask for the case number, county, and date filed for the judgment and they did not change the spelling of her name to match the judgment, they left it as i wrote it.

i was wondering if she can somehow protest the fact that these liens have been filed against her based on a judgment that reflects her misspelled name(the misspelling is only one letter off, for example "smith" becomes "smirth"), or are these liens "final" and leave her with no recourse of action even if she disagrees with them? i ask because i was also wondering if it would be a good idea to send her some sort of letter stating that i have these liens against these properties and that the interest is mounting, etc and that she should pay me asap. i'm sure she has no idea that these liens exist yet as they were only filed a month ago. if she can't fight the fact that these liens exist i don't see how it would hurt to send such a letter, but if she can somehow argue in court that these liens should not exist based on the misspelled judgment and was able to get them overturned in court then it would be a waste of my time. the positive side i see to "waiting" until she sells one of these properties, assuming she still doesn't know about the liens, is that once they do a title search and things get close to closing, she won't have time to fight anything in court if she wants to sell the house under the current contract and she'd be more likely to just pay me off. i have no idea how much she owes on these properties though and whether or not she would even be getting proceeds from the sale in the even she were to sell one.

i'll be the first to admit that i'm not a law expert (which is why i'm here asking you guys), so if any of the above sounds stupid forgive me, i am not sure how it all works and am just trying to make sure i understand things a bit better.

[MetalMan390]

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[MetalMan390]

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