Post-Judgment Collection in Florida: How Creditors Get Paid

October 26 2026

Matthew Fornaro

Business Litigation Attorney · Coral Springs, FL

Matthew Fornaro is a Florida business law attorney serving Coral Springs, Parkland, and Broward County. He represents small businesses in commercial litigation, contract disputes, and business torts. Schedule a consultation →

Key Takeaways

Florida business law protects companies from unfair competition, contract breaches, and partner disputes.
Acting early saves time, money, and business relationships.
An experienced business attorney helps you assess risk and choose the right legal strategy.

Winning a judgment in Florida does not put money in your account. It gives you a legal right to collect, and you have to enforce it. The usual toolkit has four parts. You record a judgment lien, use post-judgment discovery to find assets, obtain a writ (of execution or garnishment) to reach those assets, and keep the judgment alive and accruing interest until it is paid. This guide walks a business creditor through each step in order, with the statutes and rules that govern it.

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TL;DR

A Florida judgment can be collected for up to 20 years and can be renewed for another 20, but the lien that protects your priority needs separate attention.
Post-judgment discovery (Rule 1.560 and Form 1.977) is how you find the debtor’s bank accounts, transfers and property before you spend money on levies.
Writs of execution and garnishment reach only non-exempt assets. Homestead and certain wages are protected.
Judgment interest runs at 7.87% as of October 1, 2026, and the state publishes the current rate.
Collection is usually won by sequencing: lien first, discovery second, targeted writs third.

What happens after you win a judgment
How long a Florida judgment lasts
Step 1: Record the judgment lien
Step 2: Find the assets with post-judgment discovery
Step 3: Use the right writ for the asset
What you cannot collect: Florida exemptions
Interest and the cost of waiting
Collecting a judgment from another state or court
A realistic sequence for a business creditor
Perspective: what we see in practice
Working with a Florida collections lawyer
FAQ
Sources

What happens after you win a judgment

A money judgment is an order that the debtor owes you a sum. Nothing in it forces the debtor to pay. If the debtor ignores it, the court does not go looking for assets on your behalf. You do that, using tools the Florida Legislature and the Florida Supreme Court have written down.

The state’s own guidance for creditors lays out the main path: file a judgment lien, obtain a writ of execution from the clerk, and give the sheriff instructions to levy so that non-exempt assets can be seized and sold. Every other tool, from discovery to garnishment, supports that path or branches from it.

Two practical points before the steps:

Collectability matters more than the amount. A $200,000 judgment against an insolvent shell is worth less than $30,000 against a company with receivables and real property. Learn about the debtor early.
Order matters. Recording a lien before the debtor sells or refinances protects your place in line. Discovery before levy keeps you from paying sheriff’s fees on empty accounts.

If you want the full business-owner walkthrough, we cover it in our guide to collecting a judgment in Florida.

How long a Florida judgment lasts

The Florida Bar tells the public that a judgment can be collected for up to 20 years and renewed for an additional 20 years on request to the court. The lien side has its own statute: under section 55.081, a judgment is no longer a lien on real or personal property 20 years after entry.

The details are less tidy than the headline. A Florida Bar Journal analysis notes that the life of a money judgment is limited for only some purposes. The lien has a 20-year limit, but the law is less clear about a time limit on execution, and repealed statutes and inconsistent appellate decisions have kept that question debated. The safe working assumption is that you have 20 years, you should calendar the end date from day one, and you should not let a judgment sit untouched for years because the clock feels long.

The practical risk of waiting is not the statute. It is the debtor. Businesses close, owners move assets, and a debtor with equity today may have none in five years.

Step 1: Record the judgment lien

A lien on real property in Florida comes from recording a certified copy of the judgment in the county’s official records. A lien on personal property is different. A creditor can file a Judgment Lien Certificate with the Florida Department of State, and a second certificate can extend that lien for another five years.

Why bother? Priority. The sheriff distributes sale proceeds first to costs, then to the levying creditor for liquidation costs, and then to other lien holders in the order their liens were filed. If another creditor has a lien filed earlier than yours, it is paid first. Filing is not mandatory, but when the debtor has several creditors it can decide who is paid.

A few habits that help:

Check the Department of State’s judgment-lien records and UCC filings before any personal-property sale. The sheriff’s office tells creditors to do this and notify the creditors it finds.
Record in every county where the debtor owns real estate, not only the county of the lawsuit.
Diary the five-year personal-property lien renewal so it never lapses.

Step 2: Find the assets with post-judgment discovery

Most collection failures are information failures. Post-judgment discovery fixes that. Under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.560, a judgment creditor may get discovery from any person, including the debtor, to identify assets in aid of execution.

The Fact Information Sheet

The rule’s most useful feature is Form 1.977, the Fact Information Sheet. At the creditor’s request, the court must order the debtor to complete the form within 45 days of the order or another reasonable time the court sets, and failure to obey may be treated as contempt. The sheet asks about bank accounts, income, property and transfers. For a business debtor, it is a map of where to aim.

The Florida Rules of Civil Procedure were amended, including Rule 1.560, with an effective date of April 1, 2025. If you are working from an old form file or a template written years ago, check it against the current rule text.

Going beyond the debtor

Typical discovery tools work here too: subpoenas to banks, requests for production, and depositions of the debtor or its principals. Florida appellate courts have recognized broad post-judgment discovery rights, including from nonparties when there is a good reason and a close link to the debtor.

There is a limit. The Third District Court of Appeal has stressed that this discovery is not an unfettered fishing expedition, and a non-party is exposed only when the creditor establishes a close link between that entity and the debtor. So if you want a sibling company’s bank records, build the factual connection first: shared owners, shared addresses, shared bank signers, money moving between entities.

What to ask for

Target	What it can reveal
Debtor’s bank	Account balances, deposits, transfers out
Customers of the debtor	Receivables that can be garnished
Landlord or lender	Leases, collateral, liens
Debtor’s principals	Personal accounts, recent asset transfers
Related entities	Money shifted to affiliates

Step 3: Use the right writ for the asset

Once you know what the debtor has, match the tool to the target.

Writ of execution and sheriff’s levy

You obtain a writ from the clerk of the court that issued the judgment, and then deliver it to the sheriff in the county where the property sits, as the Department of State explains. You supply levy instructions: what to seize and where it is. The sheriff sells it, and proceeds follow the priority order described above. This suits tangible business assets such as equipment, inventory and vehicles.

Be specific. A sheriff cannot guess which truck is the debtor’s. Photographs, serial numbers and addresses help, and so does confirming that no secured lender sits ahead of you.

Garnishment

Garnishment reaches money held by someone else: a bank account, or a customer who owes the debtor. For individual debtors, the wage process runs on a continuing writ, and wage protection for heads of family sits in section 222.11. Read that statute before you count on a paycheck. Business debtors have fewer wage issues, but the same logic of finding who holds money and serving them applies.

Proceedings supplementary

When the debtor has hidden or transferred assets, section 56.29 lets a creditor identify property that is not exempt and apply it to the unsatisfied judgment. It also allows a creditor to bring in third parties who hold the debtor’s property. This is the tool for fraudulent-transfer situations, and it is technical, so procedural mistakes cost real money.

What you cannot collect: Florida exemptions

Florida protects some property from creditors. The Department of State lists the homestead, one motor vehicle worth $1,000 or less, and one other item of personal property worth $1,000 or less among the exemptions. Wage protections for a head of family are a separate layer under the statute cited above.

What this means in practice:

A judgment against an individual owner who has only a homestead and modest personal property may not be worth the enforcement cost.
A judgment against a company is different. A company has no homestead, and its bank accounts, receivables, equipment and real estate are usually fair targets.
Personal guaranties change the picture. If the owner signed one, you may have two debtors with two sets of assets.

Interest and the cost of waiting

A judgment accrues interest, which helps the creditor and pressures the debtor. The Florida Chief Financial Officer publishes the rate, and as of October 1, 2026 it is 7.87% per year. The rate is updated by the state, so confirm the figure on that page when you calculate a payoff, and use the rate that applies to your judgment’s period.

On a $100,000 judgment, 7.87% is $7,870 a year before any payments. That is useful leverage in settlement talks. It is not a reason to delay enforcement, because interest is only worth what you eventually collect.

Collecting a judgment from another state or court

If your judgment came from another state, you generally have to domesticate it in Florida before using Florida’s tools. Our guide explains how to domesticate a foreign judgment in Florida. Federal judgments follow a similar logic: Florida collection law generally applies in aid of execution unless a federal statute says otherwise. Out-of-state creditors and their counsel may also want to read what we say on Florida local counsel.

A realistic sequence for a business creditor

Day 1: Get a certified copy of the judgment. Record it in counties where the debtor owns real property. File the Judgment Lien Certificate for personal property.
Week 1: Move for the Fact Information Sheet and serve discovery on the debtor.
Weeks 2 to 8: Subpoena banks and, where you can show a close link, related entities. Check lien and UCC records.
After discovery: Choose targets by value and ease. Garnish accounts and receivables first, because they are fast. Levy on equipment where the numbers justify it.
If assets moved: Consider proceedings supplementary.
Ongoing: Calendar lien renewals, interest calculations and the 20-year mark.

This is a framework, not a promise. Costs, the debtor’s solvency and competing creditors drive the result.

Perspective: what we see in practice

Business owners often come to us months after winning, frustrated that the judgment is just a piece of paper. Our view is that collection is a project with its own budget, not an afterthought to the lawsuit. We would rather spend the first few thousand dollars on discovery and lien work and learn whether the debtor has anything, than pay for levies that find nothing.

We also push clients to think about collection before the case ends. Contract terms such as attorney’s fees, personal guaranties and security interests make the judgment far easier to collect. Settling with a payment plan, backed by a consent judgment, is often better than a larger judgment against a debtor with no money.

And we are candid when the answer is that a judgment is not worth chasing right now. Liens keep your priority alive while the debtor’s situation changes, and that can be the cheapest option.

— Matthew

Working with a Florida collections lawyer

You can handle some steps yourself, such as recording a lien. Discovery fights, third-party claims and sheriff’s sales are where mistakes get expensive. If you are a South Florida business with a judgment to enforce, our business litigation practice handles enforcement for creditors, and our judgment enforcement guide for Miami creditors shows how we approach it. Fees are hourly or by matter, depending on scope, and we can discuss which fits your judgment.

FAQ

How long can a judgment be collected in Florida?

Up to 20 years, and the court can renew it for another 20 on request, according to The Florida Bar. The lien on property ends 20 years after entry under section 55.081. Do not wait, because the debtor’s assets are what matter, not the calendar.

What is post-judgment discovery in Florida?

It is the process of getting information from the debtor, and sometimes third parties, to locate non-exempt assets. Rule 1.560 allows it, and the Fact Information Sheet (Form 1.977) is the standard tool. Courts allow broad discovery, but they require a close link before reaching non-parties.

What is the current post-judgment interest rate in Florida?

As of October 1, 2026, the state lists it at 7.87% annually. Check the Chief Financial Officer’s judgment interest rate page for updates before you calculate a payoff.

What happens if a debtor does not pay a judgment?

The creditor can record a lien to secure priority, and ask the sheriff to levy and sell non-exempt assets. Garnishment and proceedings supplementary add more options. Exempt property, such as a homestead, stays out of reach.