"Abstract of judgment" is a written

summary may refer to: * Abstract (summary), shortening a passage or a write-up without changing its meaning but by using different words and sentences * Epitome, a summary or miniature form * Abridgement, the act of reducing a written work into a sho ...

of a

judgment Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle s ...

which states how much money the losing defendant owes to the person who won the lawsuit (judgment creditor), the

rate of interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinc ...

to be paid on the judgment amount, court costs, and any specific orders that the losing defendant (

judgment debtor In English and American law, a judgment debtor is a person against whom a judgment ordering him to pay a sum of money has been obtained and remains unsatisfied. Such a person may be examined as to their assets, and if the judgment debt is of the ne ...

) must obey, which abstract is acknowledged and stamped so that it can be recorded and made official with the government. The purpose of an abstract of judgment is to create a

public record Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the opti ...

and create a

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the per ...

or claim if necessary on any

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

property owned or later acquired by the defendant located in the county in which the abstract of judgment is recorded. If the loser does not pay the judgment voluntarily then the winner can force a sheriff's sale of any property to collect. There are several problems: 1) to find the county where the loser owns real estate property; 2) the probability that there are secured loans, tax liens and/or other judgments that have priority over the judgment lien; 3) the possibility that the loser/debtor may go

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

and avoid paying the debt.

United Kingdom

An abstract is a brief summary of a judicial

, usually written by a barrister or

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

for publication in law reports. Abstracts are of particular use in

legal research Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a prob ...

because they condense the essential points of long, complex judgments into a few paragraphs. A researcher can use abstracts to investigate how relevant a particular case is to the issue at hand, and hence to decide whether he or she should go on to read the entire judgment.

United States

The term "abstract of judgment" may be used in a generic sense to describe a condensed summary of a court case, but it is chiefly used in a technical sense to describe a document produced by a court which describes the judgment rendered in a case.

Criminal law

An abstract of judgment is a clerical document containing a summary of court proceedings which may be useful though not conclusive in proving a prior

conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is cons ...

for the purposes of enhancement. ''United States v. Gutierrez-Ramirez'', 405 F.3d 352, 357 - 58 (5th Cir. 2005) (finding a sentencing court could not rely on an abstract of judgment to determine whether a prior conviction qualifies to enhance a sentence); ''United States v. Navidad-Marcos'', 367 F.3d 903, 908 - 09 (9th Cir. 2004) (holding an abstract of judgment did not "unequivocally" establish that a defendant entered a guilty plea); ''see also United States. v. Price'', 366 U.S. App. D.C. 166, 409 F.3d 436, 445 (D.C. Cir. 2005). In California, an abstract of judgment is a document transmitted by a superior court to a county sheriff after entry of a judgment of conviction in a criminal action.
People v. Buckhalter
'' 26 Cal. 4th 20, 108 Cal. Rptr. 2d 625, 25 P.3d 1103 (2001). The abstract summarizes the crimes of which the defendant was convicted, and all sentences and enhancements imposed for those crimes (including whether those various sentencing components are to run concurrently or consecutively to one another).

Judicial Council of California The Judicial Council of California is the rule-making arm of the California court system. In accordance with the California Constitution and under the leadership of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, the council is responsible f ...

Form CR-290, Felony Abstract of Judgment—Determinate
(July 1, 2012). It also summarizes presentencing credits earned by the defendant for time served in the

county jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...

while awaiting trial and sentencing. Receipt of an abstract of judgment triggers the sheriff's obligation to promptly deliver the prisoner and the abstract of judgment to the custody of the Director of the

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is the penal law enforcement agency of the government of California responsible for the operation of the California state prison and parole systems. Its headquarters are in Sacram ...

(CDCR) at a designated

state prison This is a list of U.S. state prisons (2010) (not including federal prisons or county jails in the United States or prisons in U.S. territories): * Alabama * Alaska * Arizona * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Connecticut * Delaware ...

. A CDCR analyst then uses the abstract of judgment to compute the number of days which must be actually served by the prisoner in CDCR custody, and then a separate in-custody credit scheme is applied by CDCR from that point forward (e.g., good conduct credit) to further reduce the prisoner's sentence. Thus, the accuracy of one's abstract of judgment is important to convicts held in CDCR custody, since errors in the calculation of their original total sentence on the abstract can unnecessarily lengthen their time in the state prison system.

Property law

In some states, such as

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, an abstract of judgment is a specific type of document provided either by the court clerk or by an attorney which is used to prove that a judgment has been rendered. The abstract may then be filed in another jurisdiction, where it constitutes notice of a "judgment

" on the debtor's real property, thereby preventing the transfer of that property until the judgment has been paid. This process was described by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987: :''See'' Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 52.002 (1984) (directing clerk to issue an abstract of the judgment "on application of a person in whose favor a judgment is rendered"; no exception for superseded judgments); ''Thulemeyer v. Jones,'' 37 Tex. 560, 571 (1872). The bond's only effect would be to prevent Pennzoil from executing the judgment and obtaining Texaco's property. ''Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco, Inc''., 481 U.S. 1, 5 (U.S. 1987)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abstract Of Judgment Judgment (law) Common law