Our licensed private investigators have a wide variety of skills and diverse backgrounds. With 30+ years of experience, we have an excellent track record of providing high quality investigation services. From start to finish, our knowledgeable, discreet, and detail oriented staff goes above and beyond to manage your expectations, remain 100% confidential and update you daily as events unfold on your case.
We rely on the best investigative technology and techniques, and comply with the industry’s leading standards for surveillance, locating, record search, and process services.
You have sued someone in court. You have received a monetary judgment in your favor. It should be the end of the story — the moment you’re made whole. For a great many people, though, it’s the beginning of a second, quieter struggle that nobody warned them about.
A striking share of court judgments are never collected. Winning the judgment and collecting on it are two entirely different things, and the responsibility for actually collecting falls to you, the creditor — often against a debtor who has every intention of never paying if they can help it. The court hands you the right to be paid. It does not hand you the money.
Under those circumstances, engaging a private investigator to conduct a judgment recovery investigation is the most effective course of action available to you. A private detective possesses the skills and resources to locate not only elusive debtors, but the elusive assets behind them.
It helps to understand why so much money owed under valid judgments never gets paid, because each reason points to something an investigator can actually fix.
The debtor disappears. People who owe money are often highly motivated to become hard to find. They move, change jobs, and go quiet. A creditor with a piece of paper and no address has no practical way to act.
The assets are hidden. Even a located debtor is no help if you can’t identify anything to collect against. Debtors shield assets in all sorts of ways — putting property in others’ names, moving money between accounts, operating through business entities. Finding those assets takes investigation.
The creditor gives up. This is the quiet reason behind most uncollected judgments. Collection is genuinely difficult and takes persistence most people don’t have the time or tools for, so they simply stop. The debt doesn’t vanish — the effort to collect it does.
The creditor never brings in the right help. Many creditors don’t realize that the same investigative tools used to find missing people and hidden assets apply directly to their situation. They try to collect alone, get nowhere, and conclude it’s hopeless when it isn’t.
At The Night Owls Agency, we use the full range of our investigative abilities to help clients recover judgments. Our locating work has taken us after people who don’t want to be found, and our asset-search work has taken us after money its owners don’t want found — and judgment recovery sits precisely at the intersection of those two skills.
Locating the debtor. Using skip tracing, database research, and public records, we establish where a debtor actually is now — current residence, current employment, current contact points.
Finding the assets. This is the heart of recovery. We search for real property, vehicles, bank and brokerage accounts, business interests, and other holdings that could satisfy the judgment. Just as importantly, we look for assets a debtor may have attempted to conceal or transfer to stay judgment-proof on paper while remaining comfortable in reality.
Assessing collectibility. Not every debtor can pay, and part of an honest investigation is telling you what’s realistically there. We give you a clear picture of what a debtor actually has, so you can make informed decisions about how hard to pursue and by what method.
An asset search is only valuable if it leads somewhere. The reason our approach works is that we’re an integrated firm — once we’ve located a debtor and identified their assets, we can help you act on that information.
Our findings allow you, as the creditor, to petition the court to issue a writ — such as a writ of execution — that permits the seizure and sale of a debtor’s assets to satisfy the judgment, or to pursue garnishment of wages or bank accounts where appropriate. And because we have a process service division, we can even serve the resulting writ, garnishment, or levy on your debtor. You aren’t handed a report and left to figure out the rest; the investigation flows directly into the tools that actually get you paid.
The reality is that most judgments can be recovered — with a combination of persistence, patience, and grit. What separates a collected judgment from an abandoned one usually isn’t the debtor’s circumstances; it’s whether someone with the right skills stayed on it long enough to see it through.
No judgment is beyond recovery. It just takes the right people with the right knowledge. Because of the breadth of the services we offer as an integrated private investigation firm, we have all the necessary tools at our disposal for even the most difficult judgment recovery cases — locating, asset investigation, and service of process, all under one roof.
Florida has its own particular framework around judgments and collection that’s worth being aware of. Judgments are enforceable for years and can be extended, so a debtor who has nothing today may become collectible later as their circumstances change — which is one reason abandoning a judgment is often a mistake. Florida also provides certain debtor protections and exemptions, most notably its well-known homestead protection, which affects what can and can’t be reached in collection. Understanding what’s actually collectible under Florida law is part of setting realistic expectations, and it’s a conversation worth having with both your investigator and your attorney.
Much of our judgment recovery work is done alongside attorneys handling collection matters. We provide the investigative backbone — locating debtors, documenting assets, and supplying the information counsel needs to pursue writs, garnishments, and levies — and we can handle the service side as well. For firms carrying multiple collection files, having a single investigative partner who can find both the person and the money streamlines the whole effort.
How many judgments actually go uncollected?
A large share of them — enough that collection, not winning, is the real challenge for many creditors. The good news is that most judgments are recoverable with the right effort.
Can you find assets a debtor is hiding?
Locating concealed and transferred assets is a core part of what an asset investigation is for. We look well beyond what’s visible on the surface.
What can I do once you find the assets?
Depending on what’s found, you may petition for a writ of execution, or pursue wage or bank garnishment. We can also serve those documents through our process service division.
What if the debtor has genuinely nothing?
We’ll tell you honestly. And because judgments remain enforceable for years in Florida, a debtor who’s uncollectible now may become collectible later.
We are here to assist you in answering questions you may have in regards to your case. To begin please call, email or submit a request form below.
Serving the entire state of Florida.
Our agents are on standby 24/7 to provide you with a detailed, comprehensive strategy for all your investigative needs.
Once retained, our investigators will be thoroughly briefed on all the details related to your case.
Our highly skilled agents will handle your matter from start to finish with the utmost professionalism while remaining 100% discreet.
At the conclusion of your case and after thorough review, our team will steer you in the right direction whether it be legal or non-legal.
