Litigation
Cal. Litig. 2021, Volume 34, Number 1
Content
- A Supreme Court Clerk Remembers Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Are Covid-19 Eviction Restrictions Constitutional?
- Covid-19 and Commercial Tenancies: Can the Twain Ever Meet? Negotiation Tips to Do So
- Editor's Foreword Seriously, How Are You?
- From the Section Chair Walking the Walk
- Interview With Magistrate Judge Helena M. Barch-Kuchta of the Eastern District of California
- Man of Tomorrow the Relentless Life of Jerry Brown By Jim Newton
- Masthead
- Rbg (Revered By Generations): Defying and Redefining Labels
- Second Amendment: the Dozen Yardsticks for Measuring its Scope
- Table of Contents
- The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law Edited by Jeffrey S. Sutton and Edward Whelan
- Witness Preparation: Cinematic Lessons
- Staying Enforcement of a Money Judgment on Appeal
Staying Enforcement of a Money Judgment on Appeal
By H. Thomas Watson
H. Thomas Watson, a Certified Appellate Specialist, is a partner at the appellate firm Horvitz & Levy LLP. Tom has published and presented extensively on numerous legal topics, including appellate procedure, medical expense damages, health law, and insurance law.
Unless enforcement is stayed, a judgment creditor can enforce a money judgment as soon as it is entered — unless the judgment debtor is a public entity. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 917.1, subd. (a), 995.220.) Money judgments are usually enforced by levying against the judgment debtor’s property under a writ of execution. (See Ahart, Cal. Practice Guide: Enforcing Judgments and Debts (The Rutter Group 2019) ¶ 6:300, p. 6D-1.) The court clerk has a ministerial duty to issue a writ of execution, which means that the clerk issues the writ in the ordinary course of business without any notice to the judgment debtor or any ruling or approval by the judge. (See Code Civ. Proc., §§ 699.510, 712.010; see also Judicial Council Forms, form EJ-130.)
Under a writ of execution, the judgment debtor’s unprotected assets can be seized and its bank accounts frozen. (See Code Civ. Proc., §§ 695.010 et seq., 699.010 et seq., 699.520 et seq.) However, there are several ways to secure a stay of enforcement. Judgment debtors and their counsel should understand all of these available options.