Conciliation Court

The Judgment

When Will You Hear the Court's Decision?

The court may help you and the defendant reach an agreement at the hearing. If not, the court will decide the case and you will be notified by mail of the decision. (The court usually does not rule on claims at the time of the hearing.) The judgment will not become effective until 21 days after the notice is mailed. The court administrator will tell you the date in this notice. This 21-day period is called the "stay period," and it allows you and the other party time to file an appeal or make a motion to vacate the judgment.

What if You Lose?

If either the plaintiff or the defendant is dissatisfied with the judge's decision, the 21-day stay period allows the unhappy party to appeal or bring a motion to vacate the judgment. This is discussed further in the section titled "Removing the Case." The court may also vacate the judgment and order a new hearing if a party that did not appear had a good reason for not appearing. Before it grants a new hearing, the court may require the party who did not appear to pay costs to the other party.

Application for "vacation of judgment" generally must be made within the 21-day stay period. You must show:

• You were not given proper notice of the hearing;
• You were mistaken about the time or date of the hearing; or
• You missed the hearing for some other valid reason.

The court will only vacate the judgment and reopen the case if it decides that your absence was unavoidable and unintentional. You will be notified by mail of the new trial date.

How Do You Pay the Judgment?

If you are within the metropolitan counties, make payment directly to the conciliation court by the date the judgment becomes final. The court records will then reflect that payment was made. For Greater Minnesota areas, check with the court administrator for payment guidelines.

How Do You Collect Your Money if You Win?

The conciliation court cannot and will not collect the judgment for you. It may be necessary for you to take additional steps to enforce the judgment. Remember, you may not try to collect the judgment until 21 days after the notice of judgment is postmarked.

In the collection process, you are the judgment creditor, or collector. The person you are trying to collect from is called the debtor, or judgment debtor. The following procedural steps can be taken when a debtor refuses to pay and the location of collectible assets is known. The costs associated with these procedures can be added to your judgment.

Garnishing Money from A Debtor’s Paycheck

1. Have the conciliation court judgment transcribed to the district court. Your district court administrator can help you with this.
2. File an Affidavit of Identification form with the court administrator. This also creates a lien against real estate the debtor owns in the county. If they want to sell any of that property, you might have to be paid first. It also affects the debtor’s credit rating.
3. If you do not know where the debtor works, you can ask the court administrator (or your attorney, if you have one) to send the debtor a form called a Demand for Disclosure. This form is a court order that requires the debtor to fill out and return another form called the Financial Disclosure Form. This second form requires debtors to disclose their employer and the location of all their assets.  If the debtor fails to respond, ask the court to issue an Order to Show Cause. This requires the debtor to appear in court and explain why the Demand for Disclosure was disobeyed.
4. When you know where the debtor works, you must next serve the debtor with forms called an Exemption Notice and Notice of Intent to Garnish Earnings. This notifies the debtor that you plan to garnish their wages and allows them 10 days to notify you if they are exempt from garnishment. Some people are exempt from garnishment—for example, people who receive need-based public assistance are exempt—and this form allows debtors to notify you of any exemptions.
5. If 10 days pass and the debtor has not claimed to be exempt from garnishment, you may serve the debtor and their employer with a Garnishment Summons, which will require the debtor’s employer to begin setting aside a portion of the debtor’s paycheck—generally up to 25% of their wages. In most cases, the debtor’s employer must continue setting aside money for 180 days.
6. Once enough money has been set aside from the debtor’s paychecks that you would like to collect the money, you must obtain an order from the court administrator called a Writ of Execution. This Writ
7. allows you to actually take possession of the money set aside by the debtor’s employer. Once you obtain this Writ, you must give the Writ to the debtor and their employer to obtain the funds.

Levying Money from A Debtor’s Bank Account

1. Have the conciliation court judgment transcribed to the district court. Your district court administrator can help you with this.
2. File an Affidavit of Identification form with the court administrator. This also creates a lien against real estate the debtor owns in the county. If they want to sell any of that property, you might have to be paid first. It also affects the debtor’s credit rating.
3. If you do not know where the debtor works, you can ask the court administrator (or your attorney, if you have one) to send the debtor a form called a Demand for Disclosure. This form is a court order that requires the debtor to fill out and return another form called the Financial Disclosure Form. This second form requires debtors to disclose their employer and the location of all their assets.  If the debtor fails to respond, ask the court to issue an Order to Show Cause. This requires the debtor to appear in court and explain why the Demand for Disclosure was disobeyed.
4. When you know where the debtor banks, you may serve the debtor’s bank a form called a Garnishment Summons, which will require the debtor’s bank to freeze money in the debtor’s bank account. You must also send the debtor and their bank an Exemption Form with the Garnishment Summons. Some types of money and debtors are exempt from judgment collection—for example, Social Security income and people who receive need-based public assistance are exempt from collection—and this form allows debtors to protect exempt money in their bank account.
5. Once the debtor’s bank account is frozen, and once you have confirmed that the money in the debtor’s bank account is not exempt from collection, you must obtain an order from the court administrator called a Writ of Execution. This Writ allows you to actually take possession of the money frozen by the debtor’s bank. Once you obtain this Writ, you must give the Writ to the debtor and their bank to obtain the frozen funds.

Collecting A Debtor’s Personal Property or Real Estate

1. Have the conciliation court judgment transcribed to the district court. Your district court administrator can help you with this.
2. File an Affidavit of Identification form with the court administrator. This creates a lien against real estate the debtor owns in the county. If they want to sell any of that property, you might have to be paid first. It also affects the debtor’s credit rating.
3. If you do not know where the debtor works, you can ask the court administrator (or your attorney, if you have one) to send the debtor a form called a Demand for Disclosure. This form is a court order that requires the debtor to fill out and return another form called the Financial Disclosure Form. This second form requires debtors to disclose their employer and the location of all their assets.  If the debtor fails to respond, ask the court to issue an Order to Show Cause. This requires the debtor to appear in court and explain why the Demand for Disclosure was disobeyed.
4. If you intend to serve the debtor with a writ of execution to take possession of their property, for example a vehicle, snowmobile, or boat, you must first notify the debtor. (A writ of execution is an order that enforces the decision of the conciliation court.) Notification must take place at least 10 days before the execution may be served. The sheriff will not accept the first writ of execution without proof that you complied with the 10-day notice.
5. Request the court administrator issue a Writ of Execution.
6. If you know where the property you wish to seize is located, deliver the writ of execution to the sheriff’s office with a specific list of property or bank accounts that belong to the debtor or the name of the debtor’s employer. (Some assets are exempt from collection.) With sufficient information and the writ of execution, the sheriff can “levy” the debtor’s property. This means the sheriff will actually take the items you have identified. However, the sheriff cannot break into the debtor’s home to collect an item subject to levy. If the sheriff is unable to levy the assets within 180 days after the sheriff receives the writ, the writ will be returned to you “unsatisfied.”

Despite all of these legal actions, there will still be some cases where the debtor is "judgment proof." The debtor may possess only minimum viable assets and may be unemployed with public assistance as the only source of income. In that case, there is little you can do. However, a conciliation court judgment is valid for 10 years. Over that time, a person's financial circumstances will often change.