The Short Answer
If you've been sued, you most likely received a notice in the mail — that's how the legal process works. If you've moved and missed that notice, you can find out by visiting the Clerk of Court in the county where you lived when the suit was filed and requesting a judgment search. That search will show you who sued you, when the judgment was entered, how much you owed, and what you owe today with interest. If a judgment exists and you own real property in that county, the judgment may have automatically attached to your home as a lien — which is something you'll want to address with an attorney right away.
We get this question often! The answer for the most part is quite simple. If you have been sued, unless you have changed your address and have not updated it through the post office, you likely have received notices that were being sued. To understand the process of a lawsuit better, check out the blog post we wrote about whether bankruptcy can help you if you have a judgment.
Should you be a person who has moved and slipped through the cracks, finding out if judgments are against you is still a quite simple matter. You will need to go to the Clerk of Court for the county that you are (or in the case of moving, were in) and have them do a judgment search on you. They can pull up the person/creditor who sued you, date it was entered into the court system, amount you owed at the time of the lawsuit, what the daily interest is and the amount you currently owe. For example, if you lived in Union County, North Carolina for the past 9 years and you just now moved to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, your judgments are likely still registered in Union County. Therefore you will need to check there first. (But checking in your current county of residence isn’t going to hurt anything either!)
From that point, you will need to determine if the suit has attached to any real property you may own. For example, let’s say for our purposes, you have lived in Mecklenburg County for the past 10 years and never moved, you own your home by yourself and there is a judgment against you. Once that judgment is placed against you, it will automatically attach itself to your home. If you have previously been sued , you will need to discuss that with your attorney to make sure the proper steps are taken to remove that judgment from your credit, especially if there is a lien involved.
If you have a lawsuit or judgment against you then you may want to contact a Charlotte bankruptcy lawyer, Greensboro bankruptcy attorney or Winston-Salem bankruptcy lawyer to learn more about your rights.
Key Takeaways
- The fastest way to find out if a judgment has been filed against you is to visit the Clerk of Court in the county where you lived when the debt was incurred and request a judgment search.
- Judgments follow the county where they were entered, not where you currently live, so you may need to check a former county of residence.
- A judgment search through the Clerk of Court will show you the creditor's name, the date of entry, the original amount owed, and the current balance with accrued interest.
- In North Carolina, a judgment can automatically attach as a lien to any real property you own in the county where it was entered — including your home.
- If a judgment lien has attached to your property, it must be properly handled through legal steps before it can be removed from your title and credit record.
- Filing bankruptcy triggers the automatic stay, which halts most collection efforts — but a judgment lien already attached to real estate may require additional action to fully resolve.
Attorney Insight
The mistake I see most often is people assuming that because they never got a court notice, no judgment was ever entered — but if you moved and the creditor used your old address, the process still went forward without you. By the time someone sits down with me, that judgment has sometimes been accruing daily interest for years and has already attached to their home as a lien. In North Carolina, that lien doesn't disappear automatically when you file bankruptcy — a separate motion to avoid the judicial lien may be required to protect your homestead exemption, which runs up to $35,000 for an individual or $70,000 for a married couple. If you wait too long, that lien can seriously complicate a real estate closing or a bankruptcy discharge.
