Domesticating and Enforcing Foreign Judgments in Florida

A creditor who wins a money judgment in another state cannot use that state’s courts to collect from assets located in Florida. The creditor must first domesticate the judgment by recording a certified copy with a Florida circuit court clerk. Once recorded, the foreign judgment has the same effect as a judgment entered by a Florida court.

Florida uses two separate statutory systems depending on where the judgment originated. Judgments from other U.S. states, federal courts, and U.S. territories are domesticated under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (FEFJA) at §§ 55.501–55.509. Judgments from foreign countries are recognized under the Uniform Out-of-Country Foreign Money-Judgment Recognition Act at §§ 55.601–55.607.

How Does FEFJA Domestication Work?

A creditor domesticates a sister-state judgment under FEFJA by recording it, without filing a new lawsuit. The creditor presents a certified copy of the judgment to the circuit court clerk of any Florida county. Under federal law, the certified copy carries the issuing clerk’s attestation under the court’s seal and a judge’s certificate that the attestation is in proper form.

Because a judgment lien reaches only real estate in the county of recording, creditors record in each county where the debtor owns land. The creditor also records an affidavit giving both parties’ names and last known addresses, plus the debtor’s Social Security number if the creditor knows it.

The clerk then mails notice to the debtor by registered mail at the affidavit address. The creditor may also mail its own notice and record proof of mailing. That proof preserves enforcement if the clerk’s mailing fails. No execution or other enforcement process may issue, and no judgment lien attaches, until 30 days after the clerk mails the notice. The debtor’s own window to contest the judgment is a different 30 days that starts on the recording date.

Once 30 days pass from the mailing and the creditor pays the clerk’s service charge, execution can issue and the recorded judgment operates as a lien. The creditor then has every Florida collection tool: real and personal property liens, writs of garnishment, sheriff’s levy, proceedings supplementary, and post-judgment discovery.

Recording under FEFJA does not create a new Florida judgment; the original judgment becomes enforceable through Florida courts. A creditor who chooses instead to sue on the foreign judgment does obtain a new Florida judgment, but that route is slower and carries a five-year filing deadline.

How Long Can a Domesticated Judgment Be Enforced in Florida?

A foreign judgment recorded under FEFJA can be enforced in Florida for 20 years, the same period Florida gives its own judgments. In Patrick v. Hess (Fla. 2017), the Florida Supreme Court held that the 20-year period in § 95.11(1) governs a foreign judgment once it is recorded. The court also disapproved two appellate decisions that had tied the period to the state where the judgment was rendered.

The period runs from the day the judgment was entered in the other state, not from the day it was recorded in Florida. Florida’s Second District decided that point in the same case; the Supreme Court did not reach it.

Many states cut off enforcement sooner. Arizona courts cannot issue execution more than ten years after entry unless the judgment is renewed, and California’s period is also ten years. A creditor facing a short deadline at home gains time by recording the judgment in Florida. The judgment must be valid and enforceable in its home state on the day it is recorded.

A creditor who waits until the judgment has expired at home cannot revive it by recording it here. In Muka v. Horizon Financial Corp. (Fla. 4th DCA 2000), the court refused to let a creditor register a federal judgment from Texas that had gone dormant there without revival. Registration, the court reasoned, is derivative of the original judgment and cannot give effect to one that has expired where it was rendered.

Once recorded, the judgment can be enforced in Florida through the full 20 years even if the other state’s own deadline passes in the meantime. The creditors in Patrick v. Hess recorded a 2003 Arizona federal judgment in Florida in 2006. Arizona’s deadline was shorter in those years, and the creditors never renewed the judgment, so it became unenforceable there in 2008. Florida’s appellate courts still let them proceed on the writ they obtained in 2012.

Filing a Lawsuit Instead of Using FEFJA

A creditor who files an independent Florida lawsuit to enforce a foreign judgment, rather than recording it under FEFJA, triggers a five-year statute of limitations under § 95.11(2)(a). The common-law action does produce a new Florida judgment if successful, but the creditor must file within five years of the original judgment date.

A creditor who sues on a seven-year-old judgment instead of recording it faces dismissal once the debtor raises the limitation defense. A debtor served with a Florida lawsuit on an old foreign judgment should therefore check the original judgment date first. If more than five years have passed, the five-year bar is a complete defense to that lawsuit, whatever the creditor could still do by recording.

How Are Foreign Country Judgments Handled in Florida?

Florida recognizes a judgment from a court outside the United States rather than domesticating it, under the Uniform Out-of-Country Foreign Money-Judgment Recognition Act. The act covers a foreign court’s judgment for a sum of money that is final, conclusive, and enforceable where it was rendered. It does not reach a judgment for taxes or for any fine or other penalty. The creditor records the judgment in each county where enforcement is sought, with the same affidavit and the same clerk’s notice by registered mail that FEFJA requires.

Foreign-country judgments fall outside the Full Faith and Credit Clause, so recognition rests on the statute alone. A qualifying judgment is conclusive between the parties unless a statutory ground for non-recognition applies. Three grounds are mandatory. A Florida court must refuse recognition if the foreign legal system lacks impartial tribunals or procedures compatible with due process, if the foreign court had no personal jurisdiction over the defendant, or if it had no jurisdiction over the subject matter.

Ten further grounds are discretionary. The court may decline recognition where the defendant lacked timely notice, the judgment was obtained by fraud, the claim offends Florida public policy, the judgment conflicts with another final order, or the parties had agreed to litigate elsewhere. The other five include a seriously inconvenient forum and doubt about the rendering court’s integrity. A debtor therefore has more grounds to resist a foreign-country judgment than a sister-state one.

Unlike FEFJA, this act gives the debtor a formal objection. Within 30 days after the clerk’s notice is served, the debtor may file a notice of objection stating the grounds for non-recognition. If an objection is filed, either party may ask the circuit court to hear the issues and enter an order granting or denying recognition. If none is filed, the clerk records a certificate to that effect, and the judgment is then enforced like a Florida judgment.

A lien on real estate arises only when both a certified copy of the judgment and the clerk’s certificate or the recognition order are recorded in the county. Once recognized, the judgment can be enforced for 20 years. Florida’s limitation statute does not bar recognition itself as long as the judgment remains enforceable where rendered (Nadd v. Le Credit Lyonnais, Fla. 2001).

What Defenses Does a Debtor Have?

A debtor facing a recorded sister-state judgment keeps every defense that would apply to a Florida judgment, but only a timely challenge pauses enforcement automatically. The automatic stay requires two things within 30 days after recording: a suit attacking the rendering court’s jurisdiction or the validity of its judgment, and a lis pendens recorded against the judgment. The stay covers enforcement and the judgment lien alike. The 30 days run from the recording date, not from the day the clerk’s notice arrives.

Jurisdiction is the first of those two grounds. If the debtor was never properly served in the originating state, never resided there, and had no minimum contacts sufficient to support personal jurisdiction, the judgment may be void. A void judgment is not entitled to full faith and credit, and FEFJA reaches only judgments that are entitled to it.

The debtor can also show that the judgment is not final or has been satisfied, modified, or vacated in the originating state. A recorded judgment is subject to the same defenses and stay rules as a Florida judgment. A debtor with a ground that would stay a Florida judgment, such as an appeal that has already stayed execution at home, gets a matching stay here. Fraud in obtaining the original judgment is another ground.

The automatic stay is not permanent. The court then decides whether enforcement stays paused, using the same grounds and the same security Florida applies to its own judgments. A debtor who misses the 30-day window loses the automatic stay but keeps every defense and every ground to vacate. Collection can proceed while the challenge is heard unless the court grants a stay under its ordinary rules.

What Collection Tools Does the Creditor Gain After Domestication?

Once a foreign judgment is domesticated in Florida, the creditor has access to the same enforcement tools available for any Florida judgment. The creditor can record the judgment as a lien on real property in any county where the debtor owns non-homestead real estate. That lien lasts 10 years and can be re-recorded for an additional 10 years before it expires. The creditor can also file a Judgment Lien Certificate with the Department of State to lien the debtor’s personal property statewide.

The creditor can also garnish the debtor’s bank accounts and wages, and conduct post-judgment discovery to locate hidden assets. Proceedings supplementary reach assets held by third parties.

Florida’s exemption laws apply to domesticated judgments in the same way they apply to Florida-originated judgments. The debtor’s homestead, qualified retirement accounts, tenants by the entireties property, head of household wages, life insurance cash values, and annuity contracts all retain their protected status.

How Does a Domesticated Judgment Affect Asset Protection Planning?

Domestication turns an out-of-state judgment into a Florida collection threat with the full set of Florida remedies behind it. A debtor who treated the judgment as remote, because the creditor was in another state, faces garnishment of local bank accounts and liens on real estate once the judgment is recorded here.

The 20-year period lets the creditor wait. A debtor who is currently judgment proof because the assets are exempt should not assume the judgment will go away on its own. The creditor can watch the debtor’s finances for two decades and resume collection whenever non-exempt assets appear. An inheritance, a business sale, or a retirement account rollover into a non-exempt form can restart collection years after the original judgment.

Moving assets into forms that Florida’s exemptions protect is the first response to a domesticated judgment, and that planning remains available after the recording. Planning at that stage is common. Florida’s fraudulent transfer statute lists a transfer that follows a lawsuit against the debtor as one badge of fraud. It is one of eleven, and a court weighs the whole picture in deciding whether the debtor actually intended to hinder, delay, or defraud. A debtor who plans after the claim therefore bargains from a weaker position than a debtor who acted before the claim.