Our Services

Fickel & Davis focuses primarily in the areas of post-judgment enforcement and bankruptcy adversary proceedings.  We represent commercial and individual judgment creditors, along with bankruptcy trustees. Our services include:

  • Post-Judgment Enforcement
  • Bankruptcy Adversary Proceedings
  • Civil Litigation – Breach of Contract

Post-Judgment Enforcement

Secure it. Find it. Take it.

Winning a lawsuit and obtaining a money judgment doesn’t always mean you will get what you are owed without an extra fight. In fact, the hard fight might come after you have the judgment and start the collection process. Once you  have won the lawsuit and have been awarded a money judgment, the debtor’s assets become available for you to seize.  But before you can seize assets, you have to find the assets. At Fickel & Davis, we will pursue all of your rights as a creditor to locate and seize the debtor’s real and personal property; from bank accounts to homes to boats to businesses. Our three-part post-judgment enforcement process has proven extremely successful in forcing debtors to pay.

First, we secure our clients’ judgments by creating various liens on the judgment debtor’s real and personal property in order to prevent a debtor from selling property and taking the money without paying our clients first.

Creating liens on a debtor’s property is critically important to preserving the status quo and making sure our clients’ interests are protected against unsecured and subsequent creditors of the debtor. Liens are created by recording an Abstract of Judgment with the county recorder office, filing a Notice of Judgment Lien with the California Secretary of State, and serving a judgment debtor with an Order to Appear for a judgment debtor examination.  Recording an Abstract of Judgment places a lien on a Debtor’s real property, such as a home, commercial building, or vacate land. The filing of a Notice of Judgment Lien creates a lien on certain types of personal property of the judgment debtor, such as accounts receivables, equipment, inventory, and negotiable documents of title. Serving a judgment debtor with an Order to Appear for a judgment debtor examination creates a secret lien on all of the debtor’s non-exempt property. Additionally, depending on the type of property a debtor owns, we can create liens on trademarks, copyrights, patents, partnership and limited liability company interests, and marine vessels.  These liens become extremely valuable to protect our clients’ interests when a debtor files bankruptcy or when a subsequent or lower priority creditor of the debtor attempts to seize assets we placed liens on.

Similar to a court deposition, a judgment debtor exam enables us to investigate the debtor’s income, assets, and liabilities.

Fickel & Davis searches public records, social media, and the internet in our investigation into the income, assets and liabilities of a debtor. However, to get the most accurate financial information of the judgment debtor, we obtain a court order requiring the judgment debtor to appear for a judgment debtor examination to answer questions about their income, assets, and liabilities. At Fickel & Davis, we know the importance of conducting a thorough judgment examination.  As such, we have created a comprehensive set of questions that covers the acquisition and disposition of any and all types of income and assets of the debtor. We also use court reporters to transcribe the judgment debtor examinations in order to preserve the debtor’s testimony in the event we need to use the testimony against the judgment debtor at a later court proceeding. In addition, we serve the judgment debtor with a document subpoena requiring the production of financial records, such as bank statements, mortgage statements, loan applications, insurance records, credit card statements and much more. These records tell a story about the debtor that often leads us to hidden and undisclosed assets and income.  Frequently, though, debtors refuse to comply with the document demands in an effort to prevent a creditor from discovering their income and assets.  Debtors will claim they can’t turnover documents because they don’t have the documents in their possession. However, a debtor is not only required to turnover documents in their actual possession, but they must also turnover documents in their custody and control.  This includes obtaining bank statements, cancelled checks, and deposit slips from their banking institutions and turning over the documents to the creditor.  At Fickel & Davis, we anticipate a debtor will refuse to turnover certain documents and do not stop pursuit of the documents until they are produced.  When it becomes appropriate, we will obtain court orders compelling a debtor to produce the requested documents held in their possession, custody, and control.

Our fact-finding process is diligent and thorough by requiring debtors turnover the following types of documents:

  • Business and accounting records
  • Vehicle and vessel registrations
  • Mortgage invoices
  • Insurance records
  • Deeds
  • Recreational memberships
  • Bank statements
  • Credit card statements
  • IRS 1099 Forms
  • IRS W-2 Forms
  • Trademark records
  • Patent records
  • Copyright records
  • Certificates of deposit
  • Stock Certificates
  • Utility bills
  • Email communications
  • Loan applications
  • + More

This is the part where we physically take the debtor’s property by using posing-judgment enforcement laws to seize bank accounts, income, business equipment, account receivables, vehicles, stock certificates, land, buildings, homes, and any other other type of property a debtor owns.

After we discover and locate a debtor’s valuable property, we then initiate the process to seize, and when appropriate, sell the property.  The manner in which we seize property is dependent on the type of property the debtor owns.  For example, bank accounts are seized by serving a notice of levy on financial institutions where the debtor has open accounts. However, if a debtor owns a corporation, you cannot merely seize the corporation’s bank accounts unless the corporation is also a judgment debtor. Instead, you will need to take away the debtor’s ownership interest in the corporation. This is done by obtaining a court order requiring the debtor to turnover their shares of stock, and/or by levying the debtor’s stock certificates.  Or, a debtor may have monies owed to them, such as from commissions or the sale of a piece of property.  When this situation occurs, we seek orders from the court assigning the payment rights from the debtor to  the judgment creditor.  In addition to these remedies, Fickel & Davis has the experience and know how to seize all other types of property a debtor may have.

To seize property, Fickel & Davis pursues the appropriate legal remedies, including:

Assignment Orders

Restraining Orders

Charging Orders

Turnover Orders

Receiverships

Bank Levies

Execution Sales

Wage Garnishments

Bankruptcy Adversary Proceedings

Filing for bankruptcy does not always discharge a debtor’s judgment.

Debtors trying to hide assets often file bankruptcy believing it will extinguish their debtor and get the creditor to go away.  However, many times the debtor’s plan to file bankruptcy doesn’t work out as intended. Because of the thorough judgment debtor examinations we do, Fickel & Davis is often able to identify a bad faith bankruptcy filing and pursue the judgment debtor in bankruptcy court to get what our client’s are owed.  Fickel & Davis represents creditors and bankruptcy trustees in adversary proceedings to ensure our clients’ rights are fully protected.  Adversary proceedings may include filing a complaint for non-dischargeability of a debt obtained by fraud or for injury caused by the willful and malicious acts of the debtor, a fraudulent transfer action, or an action for successor liability when one company is shut down but a new identical company with nothing more than a new name is started.

Civil Litigation – Breach of Contract

If you are a party to a contract that the other party has breached, Fickel & Davis will file a lawsuit against the defendant with the goal to not only win the lawsuit, but to also get you paid.  Unfortunately, most attorney’s don’t know what to do once they win a money judgment for their client, and as a result, the judgment never gets paid.  As judgment enforcement attorneys, Fickel & Davis can not only help win your lawsuit, we can also enforce the judgment to recover the money owed to you.

NOTICE: The information on this website does not constitute legal advice and you should not rely on any information without seeking the advice of a competent attorney licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. This web site constitutes both a communication and/or solicitation as defined by California Rules of Professional Conduct, rule 1-400. For further information, please click here.