How to Collect on a Judgment in California

Winning a lawsuit feels like the finish line, but for a lot of creditors it’s actually the starting gun. California just updated its rulebook for what happens next. AB 774, signed into law in October 2025, updated the rules around all of this. It changed how creditors verify a debtor’s address, how earnings withholding procedures work, and how creditors can seek to reinstate a released judgment lien. If you’re wondering how to collect on a judgment in California, that update is a good place to start. The process hasn’t gotten any less procedural. It’s just a little more current now.

A judgment is a court’s official statement that someone owes you money. It is not the money itself. Getting from one to the other takes a specific legal toolkit, and most of that toolkit depends on knowing exactly what the debtor owns.

How to Collect on a Judgment in California

California gives judgment creditors three main tools. A writ of execution lets a sheriff or marshal seize and sell specific property. A bank levy freezes and withdraws funds directly from an account. An earnings withholding order, more commonly called wage garnishment, takes a set percentage from a debtor’s paycheck until the balance clears.

Each of these tools needs one thing before it can work: a target. A writ of execution needs a specific asset to seize. A bank levy requires enough information to identify the financial institution and account or property subject to the levy. Garnishment needs a current employer on file. None of these tools search for anything on their own. They only act on what the creditor already knows.

Why an Asset Search Comes Before Any of That

This is where the process usually stalls. A creditor gets a judgment, then discovers they have no idea where the debtor banks or what they drive. They may not even know whether the debtor owns property anywhere. An asset search fills in exactly that gap. It looks at real estate holdings, vehicles, watercraft, and aircraft registered to the debtor’s name. The search traces business ownership too, since plenty of judgment debtors run income through a company instead of a personal account. And it pulls together financial and bookkeeping records that show where the money actually moves.

None of this requires guessing. Excell Investigation runs these searches through licensed, database-driven methods and typically finishes a comprehensive search in under two weeks. That timeline matters more than it might seem. A writ of execution or bank levy generally requires enough information to identify the property or account subject to enforcement., and a debtor who senses trouble coming doesn’t wait around.

The Judgment Debtor Examination: Getting Answers Under Oath

California law gives creditors a more direct option too. Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 708.110, a judgment creditor can ask the court to order the debtor to appear in person. There, the debtor answers questions under oath about their finances. Attorneys call this a judgment debtor examination, or sometimes an order of examination.

The questions cover paychecks, bank accounts, stocks, real property, and anything else of value. A debtor who lies under oath during this exam risks a perjury charge on top of whatever they already owe. A debtor who fails to appear as ordered may face court enforcement measures, which can include a bench warrant in appropriate circumstances. That combination pushes a lot of debtors toward honesty they wouldn’t otherwise offer voluntarily.

It doesn’t always work that cleanly. Some debtors answer vaguely, claim not to remember account details, or show up with a story that doesn’t match what public records actually say. That’s usually the exact moment an attorney brings in an investigator. The job is to verify the examination testimony against real ownership records, and to find whatever the debtor left out.

California law also allows a third-party examination under Code of Civil Procedure Section 708.120. That applies when someone other than the debtor is holding the debtor’s property, or owes them money directly. A business partner, a trustee, or an employer holding unpaid commissions can all end up answering questions the debtor never had to.

Who This Actually Comes Up For

Judgment collection isn’t the only reason to run an asset search. Attorneys who handle a broad caseload see it recur in a handful of specific situations. Debt collection is the obvious one: a creditor wins a default judgment against a business that stops answering the phone. Probate brings a quieter version of the same problem. An estate’s actual holdings sometimes don’t match what anyone expected. An executor needs a full accounting before heirs can divide anything.

Child support cases raise it constantly. A parent who claims minimal income on paper sometimes owns property, runs a business, or holds assets that tell a different story. Divorce and pre-marital situations work the same way. The goal might be dividing community property accurately, or confirming what someone actually brought into a marriage. Personal injury cases add one more angle entirely. Before a plaintiff spends years litigating against a defendant, it’s worth confirming there’s something to collect from if they win.

Each of these situations technically calls for a different legal process afterward. All of them start at the same place: knowing what actually exists before anyone argues about who gets it.

What Changed Under AB 774

California signed AB 774 into law in October 2025, and most of it took effect immediately. The law changed how creditors verify a debtor’s mailing address before certain filings, allowing several verification methods, including correspondence from the debtor, certified mail, and certain commercial address-verification or public-record methods followed by first-class mail. It also changed the earnings-withholding process, including when the withholding period begins and the procedures and forms used to implement an earnings withholding order.

The law’s lien reinstatement provisions became operative on July 1, 2026. Before that date, a lapsed or mistakenly released lien left a creditor with few good options for restoring it. Now a creditor can ask a court to reinstate a lien with its original priority date, though a false certification in that request carries a $1,500 penalty.

For an attorney or investigator working a live collection case, the address-verification changes are worth knowing. The creditor’s file should document the verification method used and satisfy the applicable requirements before certain filings move forward.

None of this changes the basic order of operations. It just changes the paperwork creditors and their investigators have to get right along the way, and the deadlines they’re working against.

Where This Actually Falls Apart

Two things sink most collection efforts. The first is a debtor the creditor genuinely can’t locate anymore, whether they moved, changed jobs, or just stopped answering mail. That’s when skip tracing and an asset search usually run together, since finding someone and finding what they own turn out to be two different jobs. The second is a debtor who looks judgment-proof on paper but isn’t in practice. No job on record, no property in their own name, yet a lifestyle that doesn’t match either fact.

Both problems point to the same fix. A proper records and asset search crosses business filings, property records, and vehicle registrations against whatever the debtor claimed at the examination. Gaps between what someone says under oath and what public records actually show are worth noticing. That’s exactly what an attorney needs to go back to court and ask for more.

A judgment only pays off once it turns into a name, an address, and an account or asset someone can actually reach. Excell Investigation has run licensed asset searches and records research for California attorneys and creditors since 1997. Searches typically finish within two weeks, and when additional financial records require formal legal process, subpoenas may be used by the appropriate party. Request a consultation before the debtor’s trail goes cold, and find out exactly what there is to collect.