Judgement Sold

[WhatMoney]

My understanding is that failure to answer written interrogatories served by the plaintiff's attorney can get you a summons related to 'show cause. In which case, the debtor exam is probably held in front of the judge or other noted court official. I seriously doubt that some antecedent traffic crime will result in an arrest due to failure of a judgment debtor to answer some written questions.

The show cause hearing would be for Contempt of Court - for ignoring the interrogation. This is part of the Contempt of Court process I described in
ORS 18.270 (3) I quoted above:

(2) Within 20 days after receipt of the interrogatories, the judgment debtor must answer all questions under oath and return the original interrogatories to the judgment creditor.

(3) Failure of the judgment debtor to comply with the provisions of this section is contempt of court, and the judgment creditor may commence proceedings under the provisions of ORS 33.015 to 33.155.

ORS 33.015 to 33.155 are Contempt of Court proceedings (see below). ORS 33.015 (2)(e) is specifically the law that allows ignoring an interrogatory sent by the judgment creditor to ask for contempt of court. 33.015 (2) (e) refers to a violation of Statute 18.270 (3) in this case. The judge can order a show cause hearing for contempt of court to the debtor, and if the debtor fails to appear, the judge will issue a bench warrant for his arrest. I already covered these possibilities in my prior posts in this thread. The judge can also just issue an arrest warrant if the debtor appears to be avoiding the court. If you have an outstanding bench warrant for your arrest a traffic cop can arrest you - they may just process you and ask for bail, so keep a large amount of cash on you if you have a bench warrant. Maybe it's uncommon in the country where you are, but it happens every night up here in the big city. If every debtor could simply ignore interrogatories and there were no consequences, the post-judgment discovery process would not work.

As I've said several times now, it is up to the judgment holder to decide how far they want to push a non-response to their interrogatory - they may decide the debtor is not worth the trouble. Or, they may not.

CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS
33.015 Definitions for ORS 33.015 to 33.155. For the purposes of ORS 33.015 to 33.155:

(1) “Confinement” means custody or incarceration, whether actual or constructive.

(2) “Contempt of court” means the following acts, done willfully:

(a) Misconduct in the presence of the court that interferes with a court proceeding or with the administration of justice, or that impairs the respect due the court.

(b) Disobedience of, resistance to or obstruction of the court’s authority, process, orders or judgments.

(c) Refusal as a witness to appear, be sworn or answer a question contrary to an order of the court.

(d) Refusal to produce a record, document or other object contrary to an order of the court.

(e) Violation of a statutory provision that specifically subjects the person to the contempt power of the court.

[GoingDown]

BTW, for GD's info, I did check the Arizona Statutes and Civil Rules and could not find any laws that mentioned written interrogatories by mail, or even service by mail. The only way it appears a judgment creditor can send an interrogatory by mail is to petition the court to do so as a special procedure. Even a mailed summons appear to be a last resort in AZ, after a personal summons has failed. This is entirely different than in OR and most other states. Maybe the Arizonians don't trust the USPS (it's a Federal entity), and just like to send out the sheriff to do the dirty work - the old wild west mentality?

I guess it is quite different in other states, and I withdraw my advice to ignore these things if you live outside Arizona.

The wild old west does not trust the mailman. For one thing, there are parts of Arizona which are so rural (especially in Eastern Arizona), where people don't get mail unless they go and pay for a p.o. box. Many of these people don't bother to get a p.o. box (perhaps in some cases-- on purpose), so they cannot get mail.

The only way to reach them is by process server or county sheriff.

But rather than having special rules for just the rural areas, this is a statewide rule that anything dealing with court matters must be delivered by the sheriff or a process server. And obviously that costs a lot more than a 44 cent stamp, so it is rarely done.

Debtor exams are mainly done in Arizona when the creditor has reason to believe that the debtor has enough money or assets to pay off the judgment and all the fees of the exam. It seems to be more common with a local creditor like a doctor or with a car accident lawsuit, or things like divorce court issues and child support issues. Not with past due credit card bills.