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I met with a bankruptcy client the other day that had more of a complex situation than a lot of people. That is that they owned real estate, their house, and they had judgments against them. Now, if you don’t own real estate, it’s usually not a problem, but if you own your own house, then it is a problem because these judgments, if they’re taken in Supreme Court or county court, automatically are liens against your house. Therefore, if you go to sell your house, you’ve got to pay those. If it is taken in a city court, what normally happens with the judgment is it’s sent to the county clerk for them to record. Again that goes against your house.

What we can do is what’s called file a 522F motion. What that is, is under 11 USC Section 522F, we can file a motion and ask the court to remove those judgments from your real estate. That’s the simple [end to it]. Technically, we have to go and we have to bring that motion, we have to notify the judgment creditors that we’re bringing the motion in front of the judge. We go through the process of arguing the motion in front of the judge. I always have an order there because before I went to law school I didn’t know this that we as attorneys go and draft up the judgments and the orders for the judges to sign.

I walk in with an order in hand so that once I win that particular motion and hand the judge an order, he signs it and then it’s going to be recorded in the US bankruptcy court in Buffalo. Once they do that, what I do is I contact the court – I have to pay a little bit of money – and get a certified order. Then I take the certified order and I file it with the county clerk so that that 522F, according to the title lien, the title of your house, takes off those judgments so you never have to pay them.

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