By Steven M. Katzman
There is a moment in commercial litigation that clients are rarely prepared for: the verdict comes in, the final judgment is entered, and nothing happens. No money arrives. The court that spent two years managing the case has no role in making the defendant pay, and the judgment itself is a piece of paper declaring a debt. Turning it into money is a separate proceeding with its own rules, its own deadlines, and, in Florida, an unusually generous set of debtor exemptions that make this state one of the harder places in the country to collect.
A word of caution before anything else: collection begins before the judgment, not after. Sophisticated defendants start moving assets the moment they understand where a case is heading, and the interval between an adverse ruling and entry of judgment is when accounts get emptied, property gets retitled into a spouse’s name or a new LLC, and cash starts flowing to an entity in another state. Asset investigation should happen during the litigation, and where the facts support it, a prejudgment writ of attachment or garnishment, or an injunction against dissipation, should be considered before the defendant has a reason to move. A collection strategy designed after the judgment is entered is frequently a strategy designed too late.
This article explains how enforcement actually works in Florida: perfecting liens, compelling disclosure, seizing what is reachable, working around what is exempt, and pulling transferred assets back.
First: perfect your liens and preserve the judgment
Three steps should happen within days of entry.
- Record the judgment for a real property lien. Under Fla. Stat. § 55.10, recording a certified copy of the judgment in the official records of a county creates a lien on the debtor’s non-exempt real property in that county, provided the judgment contains the debtor’s address or an affidavit supplying it. The lien lasts 10 years and may be re-recorded for a second 10-year period. Record in every county where the debtor owns or may acquire property.
- File a judgment lien certificate for personal property. Under Fla. Stat. §§ 55.202 and following, filing a judgment lien certificate with the Florida Department of State creates a lien on the debtor’s non-exempt personal property statewide, effective for five years and renewable once. Priority runs from filing, so this is a race worth winning against other creditors.
- Know the judgment’s lifespan and its interest. A Florida judgment is generally enforceable for 20 years under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(1), though the liens described above expire much sooner. Post-judgment interest accrues under Fla. Stat. § 55.03 at the rate set quarterly by the Chief Financial Officer, fixed at the rate in effect when the judgment is entered and adjusted annually thereafter.
If your judgment came from another state, it must be domesticated first. Florida’s Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, Fla. Stat. §§ 55.501 and following, allows recording an authenticated copy with a supporting affidavit, after which a statutory waiting period runs before enforcement may proceed.
Second: find the assets
Florida gives judgment creditors strong discovery tools, and using them promptly is what separates collected judgments from uncollected ones.
- Fact information sheet. Under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.560, the court may require the judgment debtor to complete Form 1.977, a sworn fact information sheet disclosing income, accounts, property, and transfers. Most final judgments should include this requirement in the judgment itself, because a debtor who then fails to comply is in violation of a court order and subject to contempt.
- Discovery in aid of execution. Ordinary discovery tools, depositions, interrogatories, and requests to produce, are available post-judgment against the debtor and, within limits, against third parties who hold information about the debtor’s assets.
- Public and commercial sources. Property records, UCC filings, corporate and LLC filings with the Division of Corporations, aircraft and vessel registrations, and mortgage and lien records fill in the picture, and often contradict the sworn disclosure.
Third: execute, garnish, and sequester
Writ of execution and levy. The clerk issues a writ of execution, the sheriff levies on non-exempt personal property, and the property is sold at a sheriff’s sale. It is effective against tangible assets like equipment, inventory, and vehicles, and largely useless against the intangible wealth most judgment debtors actually hold.
Garnishment. Chapter 77 is the workhorse. A writ of garnishment reaches property of the debtor held by a third party, most commonly bank accounts and accounts receivable, and it works because it captures the asset before the debtor can move it. Fla. Stat. § 77.0305 authorizes a continuing writ of garnishment against salary or wages, which attaches future earnings without a new writ for each pay period. Garnishment is technical and unforgiving: the writ, the motion, the statutorily required notice to the defendant, and the timing of the garnishee’s answer all have strict requirements, and defects can dissolve the writ and expose the creditor to fees.
Charging orders against business interests. Where the debtor owns an interest in an LLC, the remedy is a charging order under Fla. Stat. § 605.0503, which entitles the creditor to distributions the LLC makes to that member, and nothing more. For a multi-member LLC, the charging order is the creditor’s exclusive remedy, which means a debtor with a partner can often sit behind an entity that simply never distributes. Florida law treats single-member LLCs differently, allowing foreclosure on the interest where the creditor shows distributions will not satisfy the judgment within a reasonable time, a distinction that makes the membership roster one of the first things worth verifying.
Fourth: understand what Florida protects
This is where Florida judgments go to die, and creditors who do not map the exemptions early waste money chasing unreachable assets.
- Homestead. Article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution protects the debtor’s homestead from forced sale without any dollar limit on value, subject to acreage limits of one-half acre within a municipality and 160 acres outside one. A debtor can own a very valuable Florida home and owe a very large judgment, and the two can coexist indefinitely. Florida courts have held the protection applies even where the debtor deliberately converted non-exempt cash into homestead equity, absent particular circumstances such as funds obtained by fraud.
- Head of family wages. Fla. Stat. § 222.11 exempts the earnings of a head of family entirely if disposable earnings are at or below the statutory weekly threshold, and above that only with the debtor’s written agreement. This defeats wage garnishment in a large share of consumer and small-business cases.
- Tenancy by the entireties. Property held by a married couple as tenants by the entireties is generally not reachable by a creditor of only one spouse. It applies to real property and, in Florida, to personal property including bank accounts where the entireties character is established.
- Retirement, annuities, and life insurance. Fla. Stat. § 222.21 protects qualified retirement accounts and IRAs, and §§ 222.13 and 222.14 protect life insurance proceeds and the cash surrender value of policies and annuity contracts.
- Personal property allowances. Fla. Stat. § 222.25 exempts a motor vehicle up to a statutory value, health aids, certain tax credits, and, for a debtor who does not claim the homestead exemption, an additional personal property allowance.
Exemptions are asserted by the debtor, generally through a claim of exemption and a request for hearing, and they can be waived, forfeited by commingling, or defeated where the entireties or head-of-family characterization does not hold up. Testing them is often worthwhile; assuming them is not.
Fifth: proceedings supplementary and fraudulent transfers
When the assets have moved, Fla. Stat. § 56.29 is the most powerful tool in the statute book. Proceedings supplementary allow the judgment creditor to bring the enforcement fight into the original case, implead third parties who hold or received the debtor’s property, and obtain relief without filing a separate lawsuit. Impleaded parties are entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard, and the statute expressly contemplates setting aside fraudulent transfers within the proceeding.
The substantive law comes from Florida’s Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, Chapter 726:
- Fla. Stat. § 726.105 reaches transfers made with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud, proven through the statutory badges of fraud: transfer to an insider, retention of possession or control after transfer, concealment, transfer of substantially all assets, absence of reasonably equivalent value, insolvency at or shortly after the transfer, and transfer shortly before or after a substantial debt was incurred.
- Fla. Stat. § 726.106 reaches constructive fraudulent transfers, where the debtor received less than reasonably equivalent value and was insolvent or rendered insolvent, without regard to intent.
- Remedies under § 726.108 include avoidance, attachment, injunctions, and, against the transferee, a judgment for the value of the asset transferred.
- Fla. Stat. § 726.110 imposes the deadline: generally four years after the transfer, and for actual-intent claims, if later, one year after the transfer was or reasonably could have been discovered.
Hypothetically: a Broward contractor loses a $2.4 million judgment. Two weeks before entry, he quitclaims a commercial building to an LLC formed the prior month and managed by his brother, for $10 and “other good and valuable consideration,” and continues collecting the rents. Insider transferee, no reasonably equivalent value, retained control, timed to a substantial debt. That is a proceedings supplementary motion, not a new lawsuit, and the rents are the roadmap.
Frequently asked questions
Can I take the debtor’s house? Almost never, if it is a Florida homestead. The constitutional exemption has no value cap, and it is the single biggest reason large Florida judgments go unsatisfied. The homestead can still be reached for obligations such as mortgages, taxes, and mechanics’ liens on the property itself.
Can I garnish wages? Only if the debtor is not the head of a family, or if disposable earnings exceed the statutory threshold and no written agreement is required. Section 222.11 defeats wage garnishment in a large share of cases, which is why bank account garnishment and business assets are usually the better targets.
The debtor moved everything into an LLC. Is that the end? No. The transfer itself may be avoidable under Chapter 726, and the interest in the entity is reachable by charging order. Whether you can go further depends heavily on whether the LLC has other genuine members.
How long is a Florida judgment good for? Generally 20 years to enforce, but the real property lien lasts 10 years from recording, re-recordable once, and the personal property lien lasts five years, renewable once. Calendar the lien expirations, because losing priority to a later creditor is a self-inflicted wound.
Can I recover the cost of collecting? Sometimes. Post-judgment interest accrues automatically, and Fla. Stat. § 57.115 gives the court discretion to award costs and attorney’s fees incurred in enforcement, taking into account the debtor’s conduct. Contractual fee provisions often survive into enforcement as well.
Is it worth pursuing at all? That depends entirely on the asset picture, which is why the investigation should precede the spending. A disciplined early assessment, exemptions mapped, entities traced, transfers dated, tells you whether you are looking at a collectible judgment, a leverage instrument for settlement, or a tax write-off.
Talk to a Florida judgment enforcement attorney
Collection is its own discipline, and in Florida it rewards creditors who move first, perfect early, and understand the exemptions before spending money against them. KWBR’s financial damages and complex commercial litigation practices pursue post-judgment enforcement, garnishment and proceedings supplementary, fraudulent transfer claims, and domestication of out-of-state judgments, and we defend individuals and businesses facing aggressive collection efforts. If you are holding an unpaid judgment, or you are on the receiving end of one, contact us for a confidential assessment.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. The example above is a hypothetical illustration, not a real case. Every enforcement matter turns on its specific assets, entities, and dates; consult a qualified Florida attorney about your situation.