SO YOU HAVE A JUDGMENT, TRY TO COLLECT IT

In law school, they don’t tell you that the hardest part of any lawsuit is collecting the judgment. That task is more difficult if you have a judgment in another state and the defendant has assets in Tennessee. The first step is to “domesticate” the judgment in Tennessee. Actually, there is a statute that tells you what you need to do. The first step is to file a lawsuit in a court in Tennessee. Simple enough. The lawsuit alleges that you have a judgment entered by another state and it is a “final” judgment. Then, you wait a period of time – normally 30 days -- and file an order making the judgment a Tennessee judgment.

Because this process is set forth in the statute, it is always helpful to read the statute. If you do, you will discover that the lawsuit must be brought in either the “circuit or chancery” court. What this means is that you cannot sue in general sessions court. If you do, you are just wasting your time.

The moral of this story is: Read the statute – it is there for a reason.

Studsvik Logistics, LLC v. Royal Furniture Co., W2009-00925-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 20, 2010).