A California money judgment lasts ten years, can be renewed for another ten, and accrues interest at 5% a year on most consumer judgments entered since 2023 (10% on older or larger ones). Almost all consumer judgments are discharged in Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. A judgment lien recorded against your home can often be removed by motion if it cuts into the homestead exemption.
A debt that doesn't age out
An unpaid credit card usually stops being a legal problem after four years, when the statute of limitations runs. A judgment is different. Once a creditor has sued and won, whether by trial or by default because nobody answered, the debt becomes a court order that lasts a decade and can be renewed before it expires. Renewed once, it's twenty years. Renewed again, thirty.
Interest runs the entire time. For consumer judgments under $200,000 entered from 2023 on, California set the rate at 5% a year. For judgments entered earlier, or larger ones, it's 10%. A $12,000 default judgment from 2019 at 10% simple interest is more than $20,000 by now, before costs.
This is why people find a wage garnishment starting in 2026 for a card they stopped paying in 2017. The judgment never went anywhere. It was waiting for a paycheck to attach to.
What a judgment creditor can do to you
A judgment turns a creditor from someone who can only ask into someone who can take. The tools, in the order Los Angeles County creditors' lawyers usually use them:
| Tool | What it does | Stopped by bankruptcy? |
|---|---|---|
| Abstract of judgment | Recorded with the county recorder; creates a lien on any real property you own in that county, now or later | Lien survives unless avoided under § 522(f); debt is discharged |
| Wage garnishment | Employer withholds up to 20% of disposable earnings each pay period | Yes, on filing |
| Bank levy | Freezes and takes funds in your accounts | Yes, on filing; levies over $600 within 90 days may be recovered |
| Debtor's examination | You appear in court under oath and answer questions about assets and income | Yes, on filing |
| Till tap or keeper | For business owners: the sheriff takes cash from the register | Yes, on filing |
| Vehicle levy | Rare in practice; the sheriff seizes and sells a car with equity above the exemption | Yes, on filing |
In practice, the abstract of judgment is the quiet one. People discover it when they try to refinance or sell and the title company finds a lien nobody mentioned.
Discharging the judgment itself
A judgment on a credit card, medical bill, personal loan, auto deficiency, old lease or unpaid contractor's invoice is an unsecured debt like any other. Chapter 7 discharges it. Chapter 13 pays it whatever the plan pays unsecured creditors, often pennies on the dollar, and discharges the rest. The fact that a court entered it doesn't give it any priority.
The exceptions are the same ones that apply to any debt. A judgment for fraud, for a willful and malicious injury, for driving under the influence, or for support survives. So does a judgment that a creditor proves was based on fraud in an adversary proceeding, which they have to file within about 60 days of the 341 meeting. A default judgment on a card doesn't establish fraud just because the complaint used the word.
The debt behind the garnishment we help people stop, along with the lawsuits and collection calls, is nearly always dischargeable. The discharge ends the garnishment permanently, not just for the life of the case.
Removing a judgment lien from your home
When a creditor records an abstract of judgment with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder in Norwalk, it attaches to your house. The discharge wipes out your personal liability but doesn't, by itself, remove the lien. A discharged $15,000 judgment can sit on title for years and get paid out of escrow when you sell.
Section 522(f) fixes this. If the judgment lien impairs your homestead exemption, we file a motion to avoid it. The math is simple: house value, minus the mortgages, minus the homestead exemption (Los Angeles County is at the 2026 cap of $743,459), and if there's nothing left for the judgment lien, it's avoided in full. If there's something left, it's avoided in part. For most homeowners in this county with a mortgage, the judgment lien is fully avoidable.
The motion isn't part of the flat fee. It's quoted separately, and it's worth it every time a lien is on the house. We check the recorder's index for every homeowner client before filing, because clients don't always know an abstract exists.
Judgments you don't know about
You'd be surprised how often a client has a judgment they never heard of. Substituted service on a roommate who moved out. A summons left at an old apartment. A debt buyer who sued on a card from a bank that no longer exists under that name.
Before filing we pull the Los Angeles Superior Court civil index and the county recorder's index under every name you've used. Each judgment gets listed in the schedules with the case number so the discharge clearly reaches it. A judgment that isn't listed can still be discharged in a no-asset Chapter 7, but it's cleaner and faster to catch it up front, and it avoids a creditor arguing later that they weren't notified.
If you find a default judgment that was entered without real service, there's also a state-court route: a motion to set it aside. Sometimes that's the right move instead of bankruptcy, particularly for one isolated judgment on a debt you could defend. We'll tell you which.
When a judgment doesn't call for bankruptcy
A single judgment for $4,000 with nothing else behind it is a settlement negotiation, not a bankruptcy case. Judgment creditors take lump sums at a discount all the time, particularly debt buyers who paid cents on the dollar for the account. If you have a few thousand dollars available, we'll say so and point you toward that instead.
The same is true for someone who is judgment-proof: living on Social Security, renting, no non-exempt assets. The creditor can renew the judgment every ten years and it will never collect anything. Bankruptcy would stop the letters but wouldn't change the money picture, and about one in seven of our callers hear exactly that. For people with wages, a home, or a bank balance, the calculation is different, and the choice between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 depends on the house and the income.
a client came in last spring to refinance out of a hard-money loan and the title company turned up a $31,000 abstract from a 2016 default judgment she'd never been served with. Ten percent interest the whole way. She wasn't behind on anything current, and she'd have been fine without a bankruptcy except for that lien sitting between her and a lower rate. We filed a Chapter 7, avoided the lien under 522(f), and the refinance closed four months later. Sometimes the judgment isn't the crisis. It's the thing standing in front of the thing you actually want to do.
Questions people ask about this
Can a judgment be renewed after ten years in California?
Yes, if the creditor files an application for renewal before the ten years run out. Renewal adds another ten years and folds the accrued interest into the new principal. Creditors' attorneys calendar this; it rarely lapses by accident.
Does bankruptcy remove a judgment from my credit report?
The credit bureaus stopped reporting civil judgments in 2017, so most don't appear anyway. The discharge shows the underlying account as included in bankruptcy. The judgment itself remains on the court's public index unless the creditor files a satisfaction, which we request after discharge.
What if the judgment was for a debt that was partly fraud?
The creditor would have to file an adversary proceeding in the bankruptcy court and prove the fraud there. A state-court default judgment reciting fraud usually doesn't bind the bankruptcy court. Most creditors don't bother for consumer-sized claims.
Can I settle a judgment instead of filing?
Often yes, particularly with debt buyers. Lump sums of 30 to 60 percent are common, though every case differs. Get the settlement in writing with an agreement to file a satisfaction of judgment. If you have several judgments, settling one at a time rarely pencils out.
Will a judgment lien on my house go away when the debt is discharged?
Not automatically. Personal liability ends, but the lien stays on title unless we file a motion under section 522(f) to avoid it. That motion is quoted separately from the flat fee and is granted routinely where the lien impairs the homestead.
Talk it through with the attorney
If a judgment is being enforced against you, or you've just found one on your title, call (310) 555-0184 for a free video consultation. Naomi will pull the court and recorder indexes with you and tell you whether the judgment is a bankruptcy case, a settlement, or nothing to worry about.