It’s easy to distinguish the difference between a judgment and a lien because they are to definitely different things.
When you owe a company money and have avoided paying that debt. The creditor will usually begin by sending you a letter as a reminder that your account is past due. If that reminder is ignored they will have someone, either in their office or a collection agency call you. If you are still avoiding that debt by not making arrangements to pay, the company will file a suit against you. The suit will be accompanied by a summons served by the Sheriff, calling you to court to defend the action, on a certain date and time. If you do not show up on that court date the Judge will grant the company a judgment against you.
You will be notified by both the Clerk of the Court and the creditor that there is a judgment against you. With the judgment in hand the company now has the right to collect their money by taking a percentage of your wages or any other income they may be aware of including your bank account. If they cannot find anything to take, or have taken whatever they could and there is still money due, they have the right to take you back into the court on a Citation To Discover Assets where you will be questioned about your income and requested to make payment then and there. If you do not appear then you can be held in contempt of court and visited by the Sheriff.
When you make a purchase or hire a service, like perhaps a roofing company, and you will arrange to make monthly payments and default in those payments, the contract you signed usually gives the right to the creditor to file a lien against your property or other large holdings.
When you default the creditor will then request the court to activate the lien and it is placed against your properly, stocks and bonds, or whatever else you have that is worth that amount of money. The lien remains on those holdings until an attempt to sell is made. If the lien is on your home and you are going to sell it you are first asked to pay off the lien. If the sale goes through the lien holder is paid before anyone else. If there is more than one lien holder they are paid in accordance to the date of their lien and the amount owed.
Todd Warren
