We won a court case recently the Court Order stated that the respondent must pay us 35.600€. Our lawyer informed us that we need to start an execution of this Court Order in order to get paid but that it would be difficult to get any money, as we are pretty sure that the respondent has not assets, income, etc. What we should do?.
Thank you for your email.
First of all we would like to let you know that your lawyer, whoever he is, as he is dealing with your case directly should know all the details, documents, situation, etc. and he should be would be able to provide you with the best possible advice, so, our first advice it is to listen the advice of your lawyer.
Unfortunately the situation you explained, it is really common scenario, so we always need to think twice before start a legal action if we can not find any asset for the respondent, or if we suspect that they have no incomes or assets of any kind. The searches of the solvency of a future respondent it is a really important part of a legal action.
It is also true, that sometimes in the execution of a court order when we think that respondent-executed-debtor has not assets, we could find that he is receiving a grant, a pension or salary and we could have a nice surprise.
Regarding the incomes of the debtor, you must remember that legally you can not charge every single income that he may have, as by law he must be allowed to keep a minimum of his salary – pension, to be able to survive.
Other possibility that can be considered it is to wait before executing a court order against the respondents, for example if you know or think that at the moment they have no assets but maybe they may in the future, as per the article 518 of the Spanish Civil Jurisdiction Law ( Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil) the execution action or claim to enforce a Spanish Court order, legal settlement or arbitration decision, etc, expires withine five years from the time that the said decision or resolution becomes definitive.
Therefore if you think that the respondents may have some assets or income in the future, you can wait for a maximum of 5 years to start the execution. At that time you may have more money available and the economic situation of the other party and the general economic climate is better.
The information provided on this article is not intended to be legal advice, but merely conveys general information related to legal issues.
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