Involving the Court to compel the debtor to comply with post-judgment discovery
Frequently, we see judgment debtors who will not answer the written discovery we send them. At that point, we will file a motion to compel. This document asks the court to order compliance with the requests we have made. In a Texas motion to compel, the judge is supposed to award attorney’s fees, but in our practice, we see that the judge frequently awards attorney’s fees to the client for the cost of the motion. Courts tend to be inconsistent in the application of the attorney’s fee rule in a motion to compel.
Normally, the judge will give the judgment debtor between two weeks and four weeks to answer the questions. This is an important step in the collections process. We are working our way towards obtaining an order of contempt against the judgment debtor. That is frequently the point at which these matters resolve fully, so we move as quickly as possible at this point.