Time to Collect: Joseph Chora on the Most Important but Least Understood Area of Law

The California Appellate Law Podcast

So you won a huge court case? Big deal — can you collect? Judgment enforcement, and defense against judgment enforcement, are critically important to litigants. But enforcement sits in that twilight region in between the trial and the appeal, so most trial and appellate attorneys do not know a lot about it. But Joseph Chora does. Judgment enforcement is all he does.

We ask Joseph to share some of his best enforcement tips (a teaser: don’t file fraudulent-transfer actions; file a lien instead—it’s faster, cheaper, and it flips the burden of proof). And some of the biggest pitfalls (e.g., failing to make an enforcement plan early).

We also discuss:

• How to cut off the plaintiff’s right to judgment-enforcement fees — and if you’re the plaintiff, how to avoid this
• Increasing an appellate bond
• Enforce judgments against a trustee
• Pursuing alter egos
• Using evasions of judgment enforcement to get an appeal dismissed under the disentitlement doctrine
• How plaintiffs should safeguard against restitution awards if a satisfied judgment is reversed on appeal

Joseph Chora’s website and LinkedIn profile.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Tim Kowal’s Weekly Legal Update, or view his blog of recent cases.

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Other items discussed in the episode:

• Conservatorship of McQueen (2014) 59 Cal.4th 602
• Gray1 CPB, LLC v. SCC Acquisitions, Inc. (2015) 233 Cal.App.4th 882
• Wertheim, LLC v. Currency Corp. (D2d1 Oct. 14, 2021) 2021 WL 4785575 (nos. B304655, B310650) [Tim’s post here]
• Recent case in which plaintiff and defendant agreed to use a general verdict form in exchange for a stipulation to limit judgment enforcement to insurance and indemnity
• SLAPP Fee Awards Are Automatically Stayed on Appeal: Tim’s Article in Cal. Litigation
• Dr. Leevil, LLC v. Westlake Health Care Ctr. (D2d6 Mar. 17, 2021) no. B304339 (non-pub.) (writeup here)