I have a small claims judgement against an person who runs their business from home. I have paid process server and had constable attempt to serve papers for a debtor's hearing. The roomate now answers the door and states the party I am trying to serve doesn't live there anymore.

I have obtained an extension on the hearing but must serve the actual person by a process server.

This person continues to do business but no longer lists address and phone number on web site.

Any suggestions? This person just laughs and says so what? If you even contact me by email I will have you charged with stalking.

Thanks

This is the toughest part of a lawsuit, collecting. I am not sure what your options are. Every state has different laws. You may want to consult with an attorney to discuss this. You can locate one through the attorney locator on Lawinfo's home page at http://www.lawinfo.com/. Some do offer free consultations.

First, don't listen to people who tell you that THEY will have you charged with anything. All they can do is file a police report, which then gets forwarded to the state attorney's office, and THEY decide if charges will be brought or not. Most stalking statutes specifically address actions with legitimate purpose - and trying to serve notice of a legal proceeding counts. Not to mention that Arizona's statute specifically spells out that it's only stalking if the actions cause "reasonable fear" for their safety. So that doesn't fly here either as long as your communications don't involve threats.

You can read the whole statute at:
http://www.aardvarc.org/stalking/states/azst.shtml

Second, courts aren't likely to look kindly on folks who file police reports for harassment in these situations - you have a legitimate reason for attempting to contact this person in that there are court-related papers pending for service.

Third, if you really wanted to have some fun, you could contact either your city or county business licensing department and ask for information on this business. Locations and other information are public record and should be available to you. However, you shouldn't be surprised to find that a business license probably doesn't exist - and while YOU can't do much about that, government jurisdictions don't exactly like it when businesses are operating in their playground without playing by the rules.

Finally, you might try sending a registered letter to the last known address and asking for address correction. If they sign for it, you've confirmed it's a good address. If it's getting forwarded to some new location, you might get some clues.

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

Yes, it is very difficult to collect from people who are self-employed or temporary workers. It is nearly impossible to garnish their wages. The judgment debtor exam will not do you much good because if she's a clever deadbeat, and it sounds like she is, she will make sure that her checking account is closed before the debor exam, and so you will end up spending all the time, money and effort on a debtor's exam and not get any useful information out of it. In essence, she appears to be judgment proof. You should probably chalk this one up to a learning experience, lick your wounds, and move on. You probably will never get that judgment paid. About 85% of judgments are never satisfied, and it sounds like this will be one of them.