Are civil judgments just suggestions?

[Guest]

I must say I'm surprised by O.J. Simpson getting money from his book and not being required to pay off his judgment. Does the judge in the civil case have the authority to put him in the slammer for contempt of court, or are these verdicts just suggestions?

[kjun]

The owner of the judgment must execute on it. Simply have the property of the defendant seized. We don't know what's happening in this matter.

[Guest Merlin]

It is not clear, but apparantly Simpson had recieved the money and spent it or placed it beyond reach before the Goldman family heard about it. No doubt there will be further litigation in an attempt to retrieve it.

[fedssocr1]

apparently he's got some sort of trustee or something who acts as the middleman and keeps his money under wraps. I think I read that he used the book advance to pay off his real estate holdings which are exempt from the judgment.

[Guest]

So does a judge in a civil case have the authority to incarcerate someone on contempt if he spends money instead of satisfying a judgment?

[indyeric]

>apparently he's got some sort of trustee or something who

>acts as the middleman and keeps his money under wraps. I think

>I read that he used the book advance to pay off his real

>estate holdings which are exempt from the judgment.

 

To expand on this comment:

 

I'm not a lawyer, but my father is a retired real-estate lawyer in Florida, where OJ lives.

 

Here's how he's explained it to me. In Florida, one's primary residence is 100% exempt from being seized, etc., even in bankruptcy. So there's a well-known phenomenon in which wealthy people who know they are getting into serious financial trouble buy a mega-expensive house in Florida, and move there the legally necessary time to establish residency before filing for bankruptcy. They can then preserve millions of dollars in assets that cannot be seized by creditors.

 

I assume that if you have a mortgage on your primary residence and use money you've received, say from a book advance, to pay down the mortgage, then it is safe from creditors.

 

To answer the question about putting someone in jail for not paying a judgment, I don't believe that is possible. We don't have debtor's prisons anymore. If a person has unprotected assets, than those can be seized--the judge issues an order and the bank transfers the money.

 

Wealthy people and their lawyers have all sorts of ways of sheltering assets with domestic and foreign trusts, etc., and I'm sure Simpson is very well protected.

 

But I wonder how much of an advance he got, and how much of a loss the book publisher had to absorb.

 

--Eric