How to collect a judgment against a business: writs, levies, and what to do when the LLC has no assets

A judgment does not pay you. It gives you the legal standing to take assets, and you still have to find them and take them. The practical sequence is: confirm the judgment is entered and final, find the debtor's assets (usually through a judgment debtor examination or a subpoena to their bank), get a writ of execution from the court that entered the judgment, and hand it to the sheriff or marshal with instructions to levy something specific. Nobody does that work for you automatically.

That gap between winning and collecting is why so many creditors describe litigation as a waste of time. The judgment was fine. The enforcement never happened.

How to collect a judgment against a business, step by step

Enforcement is state law, so the names of the forms differ, but the shape is the same almost everywhere. Where a state hands creditors something unusual it is worth knowing: Florida lets you reach assets held by third parties without filing a second lawsuit, set out in how to collect a judgment in Florida, and New York lets your own attorney freeze an account with no court order, set out in the note on the information subpoena with restraining notice.

1. Confirm the judgment is entered and the appeal window has run. A judgment that has been announced but not entered by the clerk is not yet enforceable. Most states also impose a short stay before you can execute.
2. Find the assets. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that decides everything. See the debtor examination section below.
3. Get a writ of execution. You apply to the court that entered the judgment. In some states it is called a writ of garnishment or a writ of attachment. It is the document that authorizes an officer to seize property.
4. Deliver it to the enforcement officer with specific instructions. A sheriff will not go looking for a bank account. You give them the bank name, the branch address, and the account holder's exact legal name.
5. Record a lien against real property. In California this is an abstract of judgment recorded with the county recorder, which attaches to real property the debtor owns in that county. It is cheap, it is passive, and it gets paid when the property sells or refinances.
6. Renew before the judgment expires, and keep the accrued interest running.

How to get a judgment debtor's bank account

Two routes, and most creditors only know about the harder one.

The direct route is the judgment debtor examination, an order compelling a representative of the business to appear in court and answer questions under oath about assets, income, receivables, and where the company banks. In California it runs under Code of Civil Procedure 708.110. Failing to appear is contempt, and a bench warrant is a real possibility, which is why the exam frequently produces a payment offer before it is ever held. Serve it on an officer or managing agent, not on the registered agent's mailbox.

The indirect route is simpler and often overlooked: look at the checks and payments you already have. If the customer ever paid you by check or ACH, you already know their bank and account number. Businesses rarely move banks. That single piece of paper in your own records is the most common source of a successful levy.

Writs, levies, till taps and keeper levies

Once you know where the money is, the writ of execution is the instrument, and the levy is the act. Against a business specifically, you get options that do not exist against an individual.

The till tap deserves its reputation. A uniformed deputy emptying the register in front of customers is not subtle, and the prospect of it settles accounts that months of letters did not. It is also entirely lawful, which surprises people.

How to collect a judgment against an LLC

Here is the distinction that decides most of these cases: a judgment against an LLC reaches the LLC's assets, not the members' assets. If the operating company holds nothing, you have a judgment against an empty box.

Three things to check before spending more money.

Does the entity still exist? Check the Secretary of State. A dissolved or suspended LLC may still have assets, and in several states a suspended entity cannot defend an action, which can work in your favor.

Did the same people start a new company? Same trade, same address, same phone, new name, is a pattern courts recognize as successor liability or a fraudulent transfer. Both are separate claims you would have to bring, but the threat of them is often enough.

Is there an alter ego argument? Piercing the veil requires more than an undercapitalized company. Courts generally look for a unity of interest between owner and entity plus an inequitable result, evidenced by commingled funds, ignored formalities, or personal expenses run through the business. It is a genuinely difficult claim and it is worth reading how courts have actually applied the alter ego test to businesses like the one you are chasing before you pay a lawyer to try it, because the outcomes are less predictable than the doctrine sounds.

Note the reverse case too. If your judgment is against an individual who owns an LLC, you generally cannot seize the LLC's assets. What you get is a charging order, which intercepts distributions to that member. If the LLC simply never distributes, a charging order can sit there earning nothing, which is exactly why asset protection planners like them.

How long do you have to collect on a judgment?

Longer than you think, and the clock is renewable in most states. California gives 10 years under Code of Civil Procedure 683.020, renewable for successive 10 year periods under 683.110, and on renewal the accrued interest folds into the principal so the new balance starts compounding from there. Other states run anywhere from about 5 to 20 years with their own renewal rules.

Interest keeps running the whole time. California sets post-judgment interest at 10 percent per year on the unsatisfied principal under Code of Civil Procedure 685.010. A 2023 change reduced that to 5 percent for certain smaller personal debt and medical expense judgments, but a commercial judgment against a business stays at 10 percent. Federal court judgments instead use a Treasury-based rate under 28 U.S.C. 1961, which has generally been far lower.

The practical consequence is that patience is a strategy. A recorded abstract of judgment plus a calendar reminder to renew costs almost nothing and gets paid the day the debtor tries to sell property or take a loan. Plenty of judgments are satisfied years later for exactly that reason.

How to collect a judgment from small claims court

The same tools, with one addition and one warning. Most small claims courts require the debtor to file a statement of assets after judgment, and failing to file it is itself sanctionable. Ask the clerk for the form number in your county, because it is free leverage.

The warning is that small claims recovery is capped by what the forum allows in the first place. California, for example, limits a business entity plaintiff to $6,250 while an individual can claim $12,500, a split covered in more detail in our guide to small claims court for unpaid invoices. Enforcement costs do not shrink to match a small judgment, so on a $3,000 balance the sheriff's fees, the writ fee and your own time can eat a meaningful share of it.

How hard is it to collect a judgment?

It depends almost entirely on one variable: whether the defendant has reachable assets. Against a solvent operating business with a bank account and a storefront, enforcement is mechanical and usually fast once you have the writ. Against a shell entity that was already insolvent when you sued, it is close to hopeless, and no amount of procedural skill changes that.

Which is why the honest advice runs backwards from where most people expect. The time to assess collectability is before you file, not after you win. Look at whether the business is still trading, whether it owns its premises, whether there are existing liens or judgments against it, and whether it is still paying other suppliers. A defendant who is quietly paying everyone except you is a good target. A defendant nobody is getting paid by is a bad one, whatever the merits.

The cheaper conclusion: the judgment you never needed

Everything above is expensive, slow, and contingent on someone else having money. Recovery rates tell the story better than any argument: accounts chased inside 90 days of the due date commonly recover 70 percent or more, while accounts past 180 days often recover under 15 percent. By the time a matter reaches judgment, the balance has usually been aging for a year or more, and the odds moved a long way in the wrong direction while it did.

Almost none of that delay is legal. It is operational. The day 3 reminder, the day 15 escalation and the day 30 formal demand are the steps that actually recover money, and they get skipped because the person responsible for sending them has another job. What you are legally allowed to do in the meantime is broader than most business owners assume, as set out in our commercial debt collection laws pillar and, for California creditors specifically, in the guide to California commercial debt collection laws, where trade credit was carved back out of SB 1286 effective January 2026.

If your accounts are reaching litigation because nobody had time to chase them earlier, the fix is upstream of the courthouse. Running a documented, scheduled sequence in your own name as the creditor of record recovers most of what is recoverable, and it costs a fraction of what enforcement does. The economics of doing that in house rather than placing the file are worked through on our page comparing the collection agency alternative for small business.

This article is information, not legal advice. Enforcement procedure is state specific, and the statutes cited are California unless stated otherwise. Check your own state's rules or ask an attorney before acting.