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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Posts
    106

    Default How to Avoid Paying a Judgment

    My question involves judgment recovery in the State of: Virginia

    I'd like to start by saying that No, I cannot "go to jail" for refusing to pay a judgement. Collections on a lawsuit are just that, civil matters, not criminal. It is clearly spelled out in the Constitution that there are to be no debtors prisons in the US.

    Collections are done by garnishments, leins, etc, not arrests. Go to any county court or civil court website, and it will tell you all about your enforcement options if you have won a judgement and the plaintiff refused to pay. You will see that having them arrested is not one of the choices.

    It is these garnishments and avoiding them that this question is about.

    Scenario: I won a large amount of money on a lotto scratch ticket, and have been retired since, living off the return on the money without touching principal.

    But say that I were to beat a person to the pulp and (Assuming criminal charges now resolved) the person is suing me for the bulk of my money and I stand to lose my lifestyle.

    Could I avoid paying the judgement by:

    1. My Brother. The one man I know would never screw me over. I simply give him the money, transfer it to accounts in his name, and my brother will give me cash from the accounts as I need it,allowing me to maintain my lifestyle.

    A court can't touch money legally owned by my brother, correct? The plaintiff has no judgement against HIM.

    2. Simply move my accounts to a different country. If I moved my money, to, say, Switzerland, the US civil court would have no jurisdiction over there. And I just wire cash as I need it to Western union, again, maintaining my lifestyle.

    Switzerland is just one of several countries with a banking industry which, while they have agreed to disclose information about the account and it's holder to the US government in certain cases, still refuse to hand the money over.

    And the plaintiff never gets a cent of my money.

    Could these work?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: If I Were to Be Sued, Are These Two Guaranteed Ways to Avoid Paying the Judgement

    Fraudulent transfers won't fool creditors. International bank accounts can be reached if somebody wants to try hard enough.

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