At Manfred Sternberg & Associates, PC, we are committed to assisting our clients with domesticating Judgments obtained in Courts outside of the State of Texas. We have the experience to efficiently domesticate your out of State judgments and in many cases we can do the domestication on a flat fee basis.
In order to enforce a judgment obtained in the United States but outside of Texas, known as a "foreign judgment," it is necessary to first domesticate the foreign judgment.
The Texas Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act provides for the recognition of judgments from other territories, states and federal courts in the United States. The final judgment from another state or Federal Court shall be given full faith and credit in Texas State Courts and the effect of due registration/domestication of the foreign state judgment is to instantly create a Texas judgment. Such a judgment has the same effect and is subject to the same procedures as a judgment rendered in the state of Texas once properly filed.
You will need to obtain a properly authenticated copy of the foreign judgment (some jurisdictions refer to this as triple authenticated or an exemplified copy). Once you have the authenticated copy of the foreign judgment, a judgment creditor files an authenticated copy of the judgment with the Texas court, along with an affidavit of the creditor's and the debtor's last known addresses. Once the judgment has been properly filed with the Texas court, the judgment creditor is free to pursue post-judgment collection activities including abstracting the judgment in the real property records and sending post-judgment written discovery. Thirty days after filing the foreign judgment a writ of execution may be obtained.
Our collection lawyers can help you domesticate the judgment in Texas and advise you on Texas post-judgment collection procedures
To domesticate a foreign judgment in Texas, or if you have a legal issue related to domestication or collection of a foreign judgment in Texas, please contact Manfred Sternberg to enforce an out of state judgment in Texas. In many circumstances we can domesticate a judgment in Texas on a flat fee basis.
To schedule your free initial consultation to discuss your legal matter, you may call locally at 713-659-0240 or toll free at 888-213-5507. You can also contact the firm online.
