I don’t know anything about civil suits, but from the outside looking in it seems like it’s very easy for defendants to dodge, delay, withhold payment, hide assets, etc. When a judgement is handed down, how is it enforced? And how often, if ever, are assets seized/frozen?
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My experience: class action lawsuits, usually ‘wage-hour’ cases where employees might be underpaid.
The vast majority settle out of court, usually at mediation. So in that case, the settlement is approved by the court, which includes attorney’s fees. The company pays the settlement to the lawyers representing the workers, or a third-party company that is an intermediary, and does stuff like keep track of all the former employees that are due money even though they left the company years ago.
So from that, the attorneys get paid, and checks get paid to the dozens or hundreds of people.
>When a judgement is handed down, how is it enforced? And how often, if ever, are assets seized/frozen?
In a small claims court, if you have a judgement against you and refuse to pay, in theory, the person who sued you can file a second case to demand payment. And that outcome is a court order that increases the amount to reflect extra expenses, and includes the ability to withdraw money from a bank account, or put a lien on someone’s house.
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