Bankruptcy & Creditor’s Rights

If a Sheriff’s Sale results in more money than needed to satisfy the foreclosure judgment, fees, costs and commissions, the remaining amounts are referred to as “surplus funds”. Junior lien holders and others have the right to make an application for these funds. During the 2007-2008 time frame such applications were quite common. With the real estate bust they have been far less common but there are signs everywhere that real estate values are coming back and so may the opportunity for these applications. Continue reading →

If you hold a judgment obtained in another state against a resident of New Jersey, you may wonder whether your judgment can be enforced in New Jersey without new legal action being initiated. The answer is “yes”. New Jersey has adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (N.J.S.A. 2A:49A-25, et seq.) (the “Act”) which sets forth a fairly simple process by which a foreign judgment -a judgment, decree or order issuing from a court outside of New Jersey but which is entitled to full faith and credit in New Jersey[1] – can be filed with the Clerk of the Superior Court, and thereafter enforced in the same manner as if it had been entered in New Jersey. Continue reading →

Recently, the Appellate Division of the State of New Jersey in Hodges v. Feinstein, Raiss, Kelin & Booker, LLC declared that law firms that regularly file summary dispossess action (aka “evictions”) for non-payment of rent are subject to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”). Additionally, the Appellate Division held residential evictions for failure to pay rent must now be made by verified complaint. Continue reading →