After You Win: Collecting a Florida Judgment

General information about Florida law, last reviewed in September 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not make you a client of the firm. Deadlines and exemptions turn on the facts of each case.

Real estate. Recording a certified copy of the judgment in the official records of a county creates a lien on real property the debtor owns in that county, under section 55.10, Florida Statutes. The recorded judgment must show the judgment holder’s address. The lien lasts ten years and can be extended once by re-recording, for a maximum of twenty.

Personal property. Filing a judgment lien certificate with the Florida Department of State creates a lien on the debtor’s personal property that can be levied on, under sections 55.202 and 55.203. It lasts five years and can be extended once for five more.

Neither step collects a dollar on its own. Both decide who gets paid first when something is sold, and both are cheap to do early and costly to have skipped.

Florida gives a judgment holder the same discovery tools after judgment as before it. Rule 1.560 of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure allows depositions, document requests and subpoenas aimed at finding assets. The same rule requires the debtor to complete a sworn fact information sheet, Form 1.977, within 45 days of the judgment unless it has been paid or the court orders otherwise. It asks about employment, bank accounts, real estate, vehicles and interests in businesses.

A debtor who does not return the form, or who answers it falsely, can be brought back before the court. Bank and business records obtained by subpoena often show more than the debtor chose to say.

• Execution and levy. A writ of execution delivered to the sheriff allows the seizure and sale of non-exempt property, under chapter 56.
• Garnishment. Under chapter 77, a writ of garnishment is served on whoever holds the debtor’s money: a bank, an employer, or a customer who owes the debtor. The account or the debt is frozen and, after notice to the debtor and a chance to claim exemptions, paid over.
• Charging orders. A debtor’s interest in an LLC or partnership is usually reached through a charging order on its distributions, rather than by taking the interest itself.

Proceedings supplementary. Once a writ of execution has gone unsatisfied, section 56.29 lets the court bring in third parties who hold the debtor’s property, and reach transfers made to hinder collection, inside the same case rather than in a new lawsuit.

Fraudulent transfers. Chapter 726 allows transfers made to put assets beyond a creditor’s reach to be set aside, including gifts to relatives and sales for less than fair value while the debtor was insolvent. There are time limits, generally four years from the transfer, so a transfer found late may be a transfer lost.

Florida protects more from creditors than most states, and knowing what cannot be reached saves money chasing it. The main protections are these:

• The homestead, under Article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution
• Wages of a head of family, under section 222.11, within the limits it sets
• Qualified retirement accounts, under section 222.21
• The cash value of life insurance and the proceeds of annuities, under section 222.14
• Property owned jointly by a married couple as tenants by the entireties, against a debt of only one spouse

Exemptions have limits and exceptions, and a debtor must usually claim them. Money that has been moved into an exempt form to defeat a creditor can sometimes be reached anyway.

A judgment from another state’s court is recorded in Florida under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, sections 55.501 to 55.509, with an affidavit giving the parties’ addresses. The debtor then has 30 days after notice to challenge it. Once that time passes, it is enforced like a Florida judgment. A judgment from another country follows a different path, under sections 55.601 to 55.607.

A Florida judgment earns interest at the rate the state’s Chief Financial Officer sets each quarter, under section 55.03. It can be enforced for twenty years, under section 95.11. Debtors change jobs, open accounts, inherit and sell, and a judgment that was worth nothing at trial can be worth a good deal later. The liens described above, though, lapse unless they are renewed on time.