How to Collect Your Judgment in North Carolina

A North Carolina judgment is enforceable for 10 years, and can be renewed before it expires. A NC judgment is enforceable and a lien on real property for 10 years from entry (N.C.G.S. 1-234, 1-306). The creditor may renew by bringing an action on the judgment within the 10-year limitations period (N.C.G.S. 1-47) to obtain a new judgment, extending enforceability/lien for another 10 years.

North Carolina bars or heavily restricts wage garnishment for ordinary consumer debts. RESTRICTED STATE: North Carolina does NOT allow ordinary judgment creditors to garnish wages (rooted in N.C.G.S. 1-362 and longstanding state policy). Alternative collection methods for consumer judgments: writ of execution against non-exempt personal property (AOC-CV-400), bank-account freeze via ex parte order (N.C.G.S. 1-358, 1-360, 1-362), supplemental proceedings/debtor exam, and a real-property judgment lien via docketing with the Clerk of Superior Court.

Through Supplemental Proceedings — Examination of Judgment Debtor (N.C.G.S. 1-352); plus written interrogatories to discover assets (N.C.G.S. 1-352.1) (N.C.G.S. 1-352 (supplemental proceedings); AOC-CV-415 (Motion/Order/Notice supplemental proceedings); AOC-CV-411 (interrogatories)) — the court orders the debtor to appear and disclose their assets under oath. After an execution is returned wholly or partly unsatisfied, the creditor may obtain a court order (within 3 years of issuing execution) requiring the debtor to appear and answer under oath about property (N.C.G.S. 1-352). The creditor may also serve post-judgment interrogatories to discover assets (N.C.G.S. 1-352.1), which the debtor must answer under oath within 30 days, and seek document production under N.C.G.S. 1-352.2.

A money judgment is a lien on the debtor's real property only when it is docketed with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the property sits (N.C.G.S. 1-234). It binds real property the debtor owns at docketing or acquires thereafter in that county. Use AOC-CV-411 (Notice of Right to Have Exemptions Designated / abstract) and docket in each county. The lien lasts 10 years.

You pay the court and sheriff their own filing/levy fees directly (usually modest, and recoverable from the debtor). Our Judgment Collection service is a flat $299 — we prepare your North Carolina-specific enforcement forms and a step-by-step filing playbook; you file them. Compared with collection firms that take 33–50% of what they recover, that's hundreds to thousands less on a typical judgment.

Some debtors are "judgment-proof" — no job, no bank account, no equity — and no tool can squeeze money that isn't there. The honest play is the debtor's exam to confirm what exists, then keep the judgment alive (it lasts 10 years and is renewable) and try again when their situation changes. We give you the tools, not a guaranteed payout.