Enforcing Out of State Judgments in Tennessee
The goal of a lawsuit is usually to win and obtain a money judgment against the other party. Unfortunately, a judgment is nothing more than a piece of paper. A judgment creditor does not get “paid” unless and until the judgment is enforced and the debt collected. What happens when the judgment debtor is located in another state or re-locates to another state without paying the judgment? What happens when all of the judgment debtor’s assets are located in another state? Is a judgment obtained out-of-state enforceable in Tennessee? No, a judgment obtained out-of-state is not enforceable in Tennessee, unless the out-of-state judgment is properly domesticated in a Tennessee court. Fortunately, judgments obtained in other states are ordinarily entitled to “full, faith and credit” in Tennessee. That is, Tennessee courts are required by Art. IV § 1 of the Constitution of the United States to give full faith and credit to judgments of other […]
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