How Long Does a Judgment Last in Florida?

A Florida judgment is enforceable for 20 years from the date the court enters it. During that period, the creditor can use every collection tool Florida law allows, including wage garnishment, bank account garnishment, and seizure of non-exempt personal property. Statutory interest accrues on the unpaid balance for that entire period.

Florida has no procedure for renewing a judgment, so a creditor who wants more time must sue on the judgment before the 20 years run out; the new judgment then carries its own 20-year life.

The 20-Year Enforcement Period

A Florida money judgment lasts 20 years from the day the clerk enters it, and every collection tool runs for that full period. Two statutes set that life: § 95.11(1) gives the creditor 20 years to sue on the judgment, and § 55.081 ends any judgment lien 20 years after entry. The clock does not start from the date of service, the date of the underlying incident, or the date of any post-judgment collection activity.

The clerk records the judgment when it is entered, and that recording is all garnishment and execution require. Recording a certified copy in a county’s official records is a separate step, needed only to create a lien on the debtor’s real property in that county.

The Florida Supreme Court confirmed the scope of this enforcement period in Salinas v. Ramsey (2018). Before that decision, some courts treated post-judgment discovery as a separate “action on a judgment” and applied a five-year statute of limitations under § 95.11(2)(a). The Supreme Court disagreed, holding that post-judgment discovery is part of the collection effort and may be compelled at any point during the judgment’s life.

Collection does not begin immediately after judgment entry. Either party has 15 days to serve a rehearing motion. That rehearing clock runs from the filed judgment, or from the verdict in a jury trial. Rehearing motions are rarely granted, but a pending motion stays enforcement until the court rules. Once the 15-day period passes without a rehearing request, the creditor can begin collection.

How Long Do Judgment Liens Last in Florida?

A judgment lien on real property lasts 10 years from the date the creditor records a certified copy of the judgment, and re-recording before it expires extends it another 10 years, never past the judgment’s own 20-year life. A judgment lien on personal property lasts five years from the day the creditor files a judgment lien certificate with the Florida Department of State, and one second certificate is allowed. The two liens run on their own timelines, separate from the judgment, and each has its own renewal procedure.

The real property lien reaches the debtor’s non-homestead real estate in the county where the certified copy is recorded, so the creditor must record separately in each county where the debtor owns property. Only a certified copy creates a valid lien, and the judgment or a simultaneously recorded affidavit must state the creditor’s address. Without the address no lien arises, and a re-recording without a current-address affidavit does not extend the lien. The combined lien period cannot exceed the judgment’s 20-year life.

If the creditor fails to re-record before the initial 10-year term runs, the real property lien expires. The underlying judgment remains valid and enforceable through other collection methods for the rest of its life, but the creditor loses lien priority on the property. A new recording creates a new lien with priority only from the new recording date, behind any liens recorded in the interim.

A creditor creates the personal property lien by filing a judgment lien certificate with the Florida Department of State under § 55.202. This lien covers the debtor’s interest in personal property in Florida subject to execution, other than money, negotiable instruments, fixtures, and mortgages. The creditor may file one second certificate within a window that opens six months before and closes six months after the original certificate lapses. No further certificates are permitted, so a personal property lien can encumber assets for a maximum of ten years.

The second certificate is treated as an entirely new lien, not a continuation of the first. Priority resets to the filing date of the second certificate. If another creditor filed a competing lien between the original and the renewal, that creditor takes priority over the renewed lien.

How Homestead Protects Against Judgment Liens

Judgment liens do not attach to a debtor’s Florida homestead property. The Florida Constitution exempts a debtor’s primary residence from civil money judgments, and this protection extends to judgment liens. A creditor cannot place a lien on homestead property, no matter how the judgment is recorded. The constitution makes three exceptions: taxes and assessments, and obligations owed for the purchase, improvement, repair, or labor on the home.

The protection ends if the debtor abandons the homestead: a previously recorded judgment lien can then attach. Abandonment occurs when the debtor moves out without intent to return. Renting the home out and moving to a new primary residence usually counts as abandonment, unless the debtor genuinely intends to move back within a reasonable time.

The timing of a sale or move can determine whether the home’s equity remains protected or becomes exposed to lien claims.

Domesticated Foreign Judgments

A judgment entered by a court in another state must be domesticated in Florida before a creditor can use Florida’s collection tools. Domestication involves filing a certified copy of the foreign judgment with a Florida circuit court clerk under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (§§ 55.501–55.509).

Once domesticated, a foreign judgment gets Florida’s 20-year enforcement period (Patrick v. Hess, Fla. 2017). Florida’s Second District has held that the 20 years run from the date the original court entered the judgment, not from the Florida domestication, and the Supreme Court left that question open. For example, a New York judgment entered in 2020 and domesticated in Florida in 2025 remains enforceable here until 2040.

The judgment must still be active when the creditor files for domestication. Florida will not domesticate a judgment that has already expired in the state that entered it. Once domesticated, though, the judgment remains enforceable in Florida for the rest of that period even if the originating state’s own enforcement period expires afterward.

Post-Judgment Interest

Unpaid Florida judgments accrue simple interest at a statutory rate that the state’s Chief Financial Officer sets each quarter. Under § 55.03, the CFO averages the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s discount rate over the preceding 12 months and adds 400 basis points. For judgments entered since July 2011, the rate adjusts every January 1 to the rate then in effect; judgments entered between 1998 and mid-2011 keep the rate that applied when they were entered. Florida courts do not compound post-judgment interest.

The rate has run near 8% a year recently (8.06% for the quarter that began July 1, 2026), and it accrues for the judgment’s entire life, so the balance a creditor can collect keeps growing every year the judgment goes unpaid. What the creditor demands years later includes all of that accrued interest. The discount a debtor can negotiate turns on how much of the debtor’s property is exempt, not on the size of the balance.

Do Judgments Expire in Florida?

Yes: a Florida judgment expires 20 years after the clerk enters it unless the creditor sued on it before then and obtained a new judgment. Florida provides no renewal form or renewal motion, so the only route past that deadline is a new lawsuit, called an “action on a judgment,” filed on the original judgment before it expires.

An action on a judgment is a new lawsuit whose only purpose is to obtain a fresh judgment for the same debt. The Florida Supreme Court in Salinas v. Ramsey (2018) called it the creditor’s chance, once the limitations period has almost run, to obtain a new judgment that will “start the limitations period anew” against the same debtor. The new judgment carries its own 20-year life, and nothing in the statute limits the creditor to one such suit.

Most creditors collect on the original judgment. The action on a judgment is the tool for a large judgment whose debtor is protected by exemptions today and may not stay that way. A creditor who has been silent for years can still file it near the deadline and start the clock again.

A credit card judgment lasts the same 20 years as any other Florida money judgment; the type of debt behind the judgment does not change its life. The three national credit bureaus stopped reporting civil judgments in 2017, but the judgment stays in the public court record, where a lender or landlord can find it.

Four Ways to Eliminate a Judgment

A Florida judgment can be removed or rendered unenforceable in four ways.

Payment in full. The debtor pays the judgment amount plus accrued interest and any taxable costs. The creditor, or its attorney of record, then has 60 days to sign and record a satisfaction of judgment under § 701.04. If the creditor does not, the debtor can ask the court to compel it. The debtor can also pay the full judgment with interest and any execution costs into the court registry before any levy, and the clerk then records the satisfaction under § 55.141.

Settlement for less. The debtor negotiates a lump-sum or structured settlement with the creditor. Settlement agreements should require the creditor to file a satisfaction of judgment upon receipt of payment. The creditor’s willingness to settle a judgment depends heavily on how much of the debtor’s property is exempt from creditors. A debtor whose assets are largely exempt is in a stronger position to negotiate a discount.

Bankruptcy discharge. Most civil money judgments are dischargeable in Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 proceedings. Exceptions include judgments arising from fraud, willful and malicious injury, domestic support obligations, and certain other categories specified in 11 U.S.C. § 523(a).

Expiration. If the creditor neither collects during the judgment’s life nor sues on it before it expires, the judgment dies. Waiting it out works only if the debtor’s property stays exempt for the whole period.

Can a Creditor Collect Years Later If the Debtor’s Finances Change?

A judgment creditor can resume collection at any point in the judgment’s life, whenever the debtor acquires property that is not exempt. A debtor who is judgment proof today, with exempt wages, exempt assets, and a protected homestead, may assume the judgment will never be collected. Over two decades, though, that debtor may start a business, receive an inheritance, buy non-homestead real estate, or build savings in a non-exempt account.

The creditor can watch the debtor’s finances through periodic proceedings supplementary and fact information sheets, then go after new non-exempt assets when they appear. Florida’s judgment collection laws give a creditor garnishment, levy, and lien rights against non-exempt property at any point during the judgment’s life.

A debtor with more at stake than Florida’s exemptions cover has two alternatives to waiting out the clock: a negotiated settlement while the assets are still exempt, or asset protection planning that keeps newly acquired assets in protected form. A settlement negotiated while the debtor’s assets are exempt costs less than one negotiated after an inheritance or a business sale has put non-exempt assets within the creditor’s reach.