Oct 16, 2026 · 11 min · 5 segments
10-06-2026 David C. Japha Learn more about the interview and get additional links here: https://dailybusinessjournal.com/2026/10/16/when-employee-money-isnt-the-companys-money-part-2/ Subscribe to the…
You come to me, you have a case, the judgment, the soon-to-be judgment debtor, the person who owes you the money, you sold a truck full of widgets, and they owe you two hundred thousand dollars for those widgets.
My first question is going to be, once we decide you can win the case, where is the money? Where does the defendant have any money? Do they have any money? So I usually do an initial asset search before we even get the judgment, because one of our calculations is going to be, is this going to be worth it to you? Am I going to spend, uh, six months to a year getting the judgment, and once I get the judgment, am I going to spend the next five to ten years trying to collect it? That's a very important question.
What's it going to cost me to get that judgment? Am I going to get paid at the end of the day if I do get the judgment, or is that judgment and ten bucks going to get me a large coffee at my local coffee shop? Um-
Um, is it worth it? Is it worth doing-- Is the, is the defendant-- Does the defendant have money? That's the question.
Otherwise, all you're doing is maybe putting them out of business, but not much else.
What happens if the judgment debtor, uh, declares bankruptcy? What's the rights, what's the rights does the judgment creditor have in bankruptcy? And that depends on a whole thing, a bunch of things that are way beyond the scope of our discussion here today, especially with the two minutes that we have left.
But it, it's im-- These are-- Everything we've discussed over the last couple of years has always boiled down to one thing, and that's cost-benefit.
And the reason I bring it up now is because you always ask me at the end, sum it up.
You come to me, you have a case, the judgment, the soon-to-be judgment debtor, the person who owes you the money, you sold a truck full of widgets, and they owe you two hundred thousand dollars for those widgets.
My first question is going to be, once we decide you can win the case, where is the money? Where does the defendant have any money? Do they have any money? So I usually do an initial asset search before we even get the judgment, because one of our calculations is going to be, is this going to be worth it to you? Am I going to spend, uh, six months to a year getting the judgment, and once I get the judgment, am I going to spend the next five to ten years trying to collect it? That's a very important question.
What's it going to cost me to get that judgment? Am I going to get paid at the end of the day if I do get the judgment, or is that judgment and ten bucks going to get me a large coffee at my local coffee shop? Um-
Um, is it worth it? Is it worth doing-- Is the, is the defendant-- Does the defendant have money? That's the question.
Otherwise, all you're doing is maybe putting them out of business, but not much else.
What happens if the judgment debtor, uh, declares bankruptcy? What's the rights, what's the rights does the judgment creditor have in bankruptcy? And that depends on a whole thing, a bunch of things that are way beyond the scope of our discussion here today, especially with the two minutes that we have left.
But it, it's im-- These are-- Everything we've discussed over the last couple of years has always boiled down to one thing, and that's cost-benefit.
And the reason I bring it up now is because you always ask me at the end, sum it up.
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