RENEWAL OF JUDGMENTS

[Hugo]

1) What is the proper name for renewing a judgment? I have a default judgment that is about to expire. The last entry is "Default Judgment". What would be the name of the action of renewing a judgment? I don't see any renewals on unsatisfied default judgments on my county's website.

2) Also I found the following quote from the Sacramento County Public Law Library which is hard to reconcile.

"It is important that if you plan on renewing your judgment for an additional ten years, you must do so before it expires. If you fail to renew your judgment even one day after it expires, you are out of luck! You would need to file another lawsuit in order to obtain a judgment on your judgment."

How in the world can you file a lawsuit on a judgment to get another judgment? Hasn't the matter been decided already on the underlying debt by being reduced to a judgment?

Edited September 28, 2010 by Hugo

[WhoCares1000]

1) Ask the court clerk what that would be called in the records. They should be able to tell you that. They may even have the form that needs to be filled out and can show you.

2) What they are saying is that if you let the judgment expire, you must then go through the whole court process again to get the judgment renewed rather than simply filing a form. That whole process is not cheap and the creditor may not be able to get costs in this case under law.

[Massive]

1) Ask the court clerk what that would be called in the records. They should be able to tell you that. They may even have the form that needs to be filled out and can show you.

2) What they are saying is that if you let the judgment expire, you must then go through the whole court process again to get the judgment renewed rather than simply filing a form. That whole process is not cheap and the creditor may not be able to get costs in this case under law.

Yes, it would require a brand new lawsuit as if one had never before occurred.

[Hugo]

Would the SOL be a defense if it has expired?

Edited September 28, 2010 by Hugo

[WhoCares1000]

That I would not know because I have not been through that before. That is something you would either have to ask an attorney about or research court cases until you can find one where that type of event occurred.

[LadynRed]

They cannot sue you again over the same debt - that would be the civil equivalent of double jeopardy, "res judicata: one can have only one trial for claims arising from one transaction or occurrence.".

They would, however, have to go thru further legal proceedings to renew the judgment AFTER it has expired, rather than just filing papers to renew an existing judgment.