Ohio Judgment Collection
Ohio does not let a judgment sit. It goes dormant 5 years after entry, or after the last renewal if there has been one, unless something specific happens on the docket, and every one of the things that resets that clock – an execution, a filed certificate of judgment, a garnishment order, a proceeding in aid of execution – requires you to know where the debtor lives, banks, or works. Ohio wrote the address requirement into the statutes themselves: a certificate of judgment must carry a last known address that is not a post office box, the pre-garnishment demand must be mailed to a residence, and a garnishment affidavit must name the employer or the bank. This page walks the whole Ohio chain in order, with the statute numbers and the current dollar figures, and explains where our locate and asset research fit. We are a public-records research firm working under a permissible purpose, not a law firm and not a collection agency. General information, not legal advice.
The Short Version
To collect in Ohio you file a certificate of judgment with the clerk of the court of common pleas in every county where the debtor owns or may own land, which creates a lien on lands and tenements under Ohio Revised Code section 2329.02. To reach wages you must first mail a written demand at least 15 and not more than 45 days before you ask for the order, under section 2716.02 – and that demand gives the debtor 15 days to pay, to pay in part, or to apply for a trusteeship that lawfully closes wages to every creditor. Bank money is reached by a separate non-wage garnishment that binds only what is over $400 in the garnishee’s hands at the moment of service. Underneath all of it runs the 5-year dormancy clock in section 2329.07, with 10 more years to bring a revivor action under sections 2325.15 and 2325.18 and no interest accruing in between. Every step needs a verified address, employer, or account holder. That is the part we supply.
Watch: Collecting an Ohio Judgment
The Ohio clock, the Ohio demand, and why both are address problems.
Watch Overview
Step One: The Certificate of Judgment
Ohio’s lien is county-by-county, and the statute asks for a street address.
An Ohio judgment does not attach to land on its own. Under Ohio Revised Code section 2329.02, the judgment becomes a lien on the debtor’s lands and tenements in a county only from the moment a certificate of judgment is filed in the office of the clerk of the court of common pleas of that county. There is no statewide filing. If the debtor owns a duplex in Cuyahoga County and 40 acres in Darke County, that is two certificates, two clerks, two filing fees – and if the debtor buys property in a third county next year, the lien does not follow them there unless you file again.
The certificate is not a bare docket printout. Section 2329.02 lists 8 items it must set forth: the court that rendered the judgment, the title and number of the action, the names of the judgment creditors and judgment debtors, the amount of the judgment and costs, the rate of interest and the date interest runs from, the date of rendition, the journal volume and page or instrument number – and the last known address of each judgment debtor, which the statute says may not be a post office box. Senate Bill 94, effective October 24, 2024, added language allowing the creditor to use that last known address without further inquiry or investigation, so the amendment reduced the creditor’s duty to dig. It did not remove the requirement that a real street address go on the form.
Two more mechanics on this section are worth knowing because almost nothing written about Ohio collection mentions them. Registered land under the Torrens sections is treated differently: the certificate must be filed and noted with the county recorder and a memorial entered on the certificate of title, not merely docketed with the clerk. And the closing paragraph of section 2329.02 allows any judgment issued in a court of record to be transferred to any other court of record, with collection proceedings available in the transferee court as though it had issued the judgment – the practical route for moving a municipal court judgment into common pleas where the heavier execution machinery lives. Deciding which counties are worth a certificate is an asset question, and it is the first place a judgment debtor location file pays for itself.
The Ohio Clock: 5 Years, Then 10
Dormancy is not expiry – but Ohio’s revivor window costs you every dollar of interest.
Under Ohio Revised Code section 2329.07, a judgment that is not in favor of the state becomes dormant and stops operating as a lien against the debtor’s estate unless one of 4 things happens within 5 years of the judgment or of the last renewal, whichever is later. All 4 are worth listing precisely, because most Ohio summaries mention only the first: an execution is issued; a certificate of judgment is issued and filed under sections 2329.02 or 2329.04; an order of garnishment is issued or is continuing, counted until the last garnishment payment reaches the clerk or the garnishee files a final report, whichever is later; or a proceeding in aid of execution is commenced or is continuing. Senate Bill 227, effective April 6, 2017, is what put garnishment and aid of execution on that list. Before it, a creditor with a live wage garnishment could still let a judgment go dormant.
Judgments in favor of the state run on a different track – 10 years from the judgment or renewal, or 15 years from the last execution, whichever is later – so a private creditor should never reason from what the Attorney General’s office is able to do with a tax lien. There is also a separate county-level rule in division (C): where a judgment became a lien in a county other than the one that rendered it, the lien ceases in that county unless one of the same 4 events occurs within 5 years there. A lien in Lorain County can die while the judgment stays perfectly alive.
Dormancy is not death. Ohio’s own word for bringing it back is revivor – section 2325.15 is captioned “Revivor of dormant judgment or finding” – and it is worth using the statutory term: most Ohio writing says “revival,” but the code, the clerks and the judges say revivor. Section 2325.18 allows the revivor action within 10 years from the time it became dormant, extended if the creditor was a minor, of unsound mind, or imprisoned when dormancy hit – so the realistic outer horizon on an unattended Ohio judgment is 5 plus 10, not the flat 15-year figure some Ohio pages report. But revivor is expensive in a way creditors rarely price in: division (B) of the same section says interest does not accrue and is not computed from the date the judgment went dormant to the date it is revived. A revived lien is also a new lien for priority purposes, so it sits behind everything recorded while the judgment was dormant. This is the strongest practical argument for keeping a located debtor and a documented asset picture on file continuously rather than reopening the matter every few years, and it is the reasoning behind our approach to asset search for judgment collection.
Ohio Wage Garnishment: The Demand and the Trustee
The step that warns the debtor is mandatory – and it hands them a defense.
Ohio will not let you garnish wages cold. Section 2716.02 requires a written demand for payment made after judgment and delivered at least 15 days and not more than 45 days before the order is sought, by personal service through the court, by certified mail return receipt requested, or by regular mail with a stamped certificate of mailing, addressed to the debtor’s last known place of residence. The statute prints the form. Miss the window at either end – move too fast, or sit on a stale demand past 45 days – and you start over. Then section 2716.03 requires the creditor’s affidavit to state the demand was made, that payment was not made, that the affiant has no knowledge of any trustee application, and that the debt is not under a qualifying debt-scheduling agreement.
That mandatory notice is also, by design, a warning shot: it tells the debtor in plain language that they have 15 days to pay, to return the attached “Payment to Avoid Garnishment” form, or to apply to their local municipal or county court for a trustee.
The third option is the Ohio trap. Under section 2329.70, any person on whom a section 2716.02 demand has been made may apply to a county or municipal judge where they reside for a trustee, filing a sworn schedule of creditors. The judge designates the clerk of court to serve as trustee without additional compensation. From then on, so long as the debtor pays the non-exempt portion of their earnings to the trustee at the intervals the court fixes, no creditor may bring or maintain garnishment, attachment, or proceedings in aid of execution against those personal earnings – and a creditor who tries can be stopped by a writ of prohibition. Section 2716.041 confirms the other end of it: a trusteeship appointment terminates an existing continuous wage garnishment order. If a trusteeship is dismissed for nonpayment the debtor cannot refile for 6 months, which is often the creditor’s opening.
Two things survive a trusteeship, and they are the reason Ohio creditors should build the asset file before sending the demand. Section 2329.70 expressly preserves the right to recover judgment and to levy under a writ of attachment or execution on other property that is not exempt. So real estate, vehicles, business interests, and non-earnings accounts stay reachable.
Where wages do stay open, the ceiling comes from section 2329.66(A)(13): the debtor keeps the greater of 75% of disposable earnings or 30 times the current federal minimum hourly wage per week – 60 times if paid biweekly, 65 semimonthly, 130 monthly. Ohio’s own minimum wage is higher, but the exemption statute names the federal rate, so the floor is the federal one and the ceiling is the familiar 25%, garnished continuously under section 2716.041 until the judgment, costs and interest are paid rather than one pay period at a time. Section 2716.05 also bars an employer from firing an employee solely because of a successful garnishment by only one judgment creditor in any 12-month period, which is why the statutory demand form tells the debtor a garnishment “possibly could cause you to lose your job” – a second creditor removes that protection. The mechanics and the current figures are laid out further in our guide to Ohio wage garnishment laws.
Non-Wage Garnishment: A Snapshot, Not a Stream
Ohio bank attachment catches what is there when the order is served.
Money held by a bank, a tenant, a customer, or anyone else who owes the debtor is reached through a separate proceeding. Section 2716.11 lets a creditor commence it by affidavit stating 3 things: the name of the judgment debtor, a description of the property, and the name and address of the garnishee who may hold money, property or credits other than personal earnings. You cannot file a fishing affidavit; you have to name the institution.
The timetable in section 2716.13 is tight. The court sets the matter for hearing within 12 days of filing. The clerk issues 3 copies of the order and the notice to answer, which must be served on the garnishee no later than 7 days before the hearing. And the operative sentence for anyone planning a bank attachment: the order binds the property, other than personal earnings, of the judgment debtor in excess of $400 that is in the garnishee’s possession at the time of service.
Read that literally, because Ohio courts do. An Ohio non-wage garnishment is a snapshot of one account at one instant, not a standing order on future deposits. Serve it the day before payroll lands and you take almost nothing; serve it the day after and you may take the month. Two consequences follow. First, identifying the right institution and branch matters more in Ohio than in states with continuing levies – the affidavit is worthless without it, which is the whole point of our work on finding a judgment debtor’s bank account. Second, that 400 dollar figure in section 2716.13 is a binding threshold in the garnishment chapter and is not the same provision as the debtor’s cash exemption under section 2329.66(A)(3), which is inflation-adjusted and currently sits at $625. Deposited wages carry their own wrinkle as well: earnings that were only 25% garnishable do not become fully exposed by being deposited, so the exempt share is sorted out at the garnishment hearing.
Ohio Exemptions and the Homestead Math
The figures move on a three-year cycle, and the current one runs to 2028.
The dollar amounts printed in section 2329.66 are base figures, not live ones. Division (B) directs that on April 1, 2010 and on the first day of April in every third calendar year afterwards, the Ohio Judicial Conference adjusts each dollar amount in the section for the increase in the consumer price index for all urban consumers over the three-year period ending the previous December 31, rounds the result to the nearest $25, and transmits a memorandum to the Legislative Service Commission for publication in the Register of Ohio. So the statute you read says $125,000 for the residence exemption while the number a court will actually apply is far higher.
The cycle running now covers April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2028. The controlling document is the Ohio Judicial Conference memorandum scanned and filed as Register of Ohio public notice 200, document 27438; the same table is reproduced in text by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The figures are: $182,625 for the debtor’s interest in one parcel or item used as a residence, up from $161,375 in the 2022 to 2025 cycle; $5,025 in one motor vehicle; $625 in cash, deposits and money due; $800 per item and $16,850 in aggregate for household goods; $2,125 in jewelry; $3,200 in professional books and tools of trade; $31,650 for an award on account of personal bodily injury; and a 1,675 dollar aggregate wildcard that applies only in bankruptcy proceedings. Because section 2329.66(A) grants the exemption to every person domiciled in Ohio, spouses who both hold title are generally each able to claim the residence figure – a point worth confirming with counsel against the actual deed.
That homestead number reshapes lien strategy. Add a first mortgage to $182,625 of protected interest and then apply section 2329.20, which bars a sheriff’s sale of any tract for less than two-thirds of the appraised value set under section 2329.17 by 3 disinterested resident freeholders who view the property, and forced sale stops being realistic for most Ohio homes with an ordinary mortgage. What the certificate of judgment actually does in those cases is cloud title: the debtor cannot cleanly sell or refinance without addressing the lien, and creditors are frequently paid at closing years later. That is a perfectly good outcome, but it is a different plan with a different timeline, and it is only visible if you know the equity picture rather than merely that a house exists. Section 2329.66 also exempts categories with no dollar cap at all – workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, most public and private pension rights, Ohio Works First payments, and earned income and child tax credit payments – and for a judgment arising from health care services the residence gets special treatment under division (A)(1)(a), where the lien may attach but enforcement waits until the property is sold or transferred. Our page on Ohio asset exemptions from a creditor’s perspective goes through the categories in more detail.
Ohio Post-Judgment Interest Is Frozen
The rate is set by the tax commissioner – and locked on the day you win.
Ohio does not legislate a fixed judgment interest percentage. Section 1343.03(A) entitles the creditor to interest at the rate determined under section 5703.47, and 5703.47 hands the job to the tax commissioner: on the fifteenth day of October each year the commissioner determines the federal short-term rate as it stood for July, rounds it to the nearest whole percent, adds 3%, and that becomes the rate for interest accruing during the following calendar year. County auditors are notified within 10 days. Section 1343.03(A) also lets a written contract set a different rate, which then governs instead of the certified one – the branch most landlord, lender and dealer judgments are actually on.
The part that catches creditors out is section 1343.03(B). Interest on a judgment runs from rendition to payment at the rate in effect on the date the judgment was rendered, and that rate remains in effect until the judgment is satisfied. Ohio judgment interest does not float with the annual certification. It is stamped on the judgment for life. The Ohio Department of Taxation’s certified rates show how much that matters: 7% for 2026, 8% for both 2025 and 2024, 5% for 2023, and 3% for 2022 and 2021. A judgment entered in 2022 earns 3% for the rest of its life; the same debt reduced to judgment in 2025 earns 8%. It also explains why section 2329.02 requires the certificate of judgment to state the interest rate and the date interest runs from, and why section 2716.041 makes a continuous garnishment order specify the rate it is collecting. Set against that, the dormancy rule in section 2325.18(B) – no interest at all between dormancy and revivor – is a real, compounding cost, not a technicality.
Debtor Exams, Receivers and Sheriff’s Sales
Ohio’s discovery tools are venued where the debtor is, not where you are.
When you do not know what the debtor has, Chapter 2333 provides the examination. Section 2333.09 entitles a judgment creditor to an order for the debtor’s examination about property, income or other means of satisfying the judgment on affidavit proof that the judgment is unpaid in whole or in part. The order issues from a probate judge or a common pleas judge in the county where the judgment was rendered or in which the debtor resides, and it requires the debtor to appear at a time and place within that county. Section 2333.10 adds a route in the county where the debtor is found, on proof that the debtor has property they unjustly refuse to apply toward the judgment. Ohio’s discovery mechanism is therefore geographically pinned to where the debtor actually is – which means a wrong county is not an inconvenience, it is a defective order.
Once property is identified, section 2333.21 lets the judge order any non-exempt property applied to the judgment, with personal earnings carved out and handled only through sections 2329.66 and 2329.70 and Chapter 2716. Section 2333.22 allows the appointment of a receiver – the sheriff or another suitable person – over the debtor’s property, and the judge may forbid transfer or interference with it, which is the tool of choice against a debtor quietly moving assets.
Execution against real estate is deliberately slow in Ohio. The sheriff calls an inquest of 3 disinterested freeholders who own real property in the county to appraise the land on actual view, and for residential property the appraisal must come back within 21 calendar days. Section 2329.26 requires written notice of the sale on the debtor and the other parties, filed with the clerk at least 7 calendar days before the sale. Section 2329.20 sets the two-thirds minimum bid, and section 2329.52 provides for a second auction. Ohio also allows a private selling officer – defined in section 2329.01 as an Ohio resident licensed both as an auctioneer and as a real estate broker or salesperson – to advertise and sell in place of the sheriff, which is often faster. None of it starts without a confirmed parcel tied to the right person, and if the debtor has vanished before the exam, our work on a skip trace in Ohio is usually the first step back.
What Each Ohio Remedy Needs Before You File
Every row names a fact about the debtor. That is our half of the work.
| Ohio remedy | Statute | The fact it requires first | Our role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of judgment | 2329.02 | A last known address that is not a post office box, plus the counties where land is owned | Address and parcel research Records |
| Wage garnishment | 2716.02, 2716.03 | A residence address for the demand, then the employer’s name and address for the affidavit | Employer and residence confirmation |
| Non-wage garnishment | 2716.11, 2716.13 | The name and address of the garnishee holding the money | Institution identification |
| Debtor examination | 2333.09, 2333.10 | The county where the debtor resides or is found | Current county of residence |
| Execution and sheriff’s sale | 2329.17, 2329.20 | A specific parcel, its appraised value, and the liens ahead of you | Recorded ownership and encumbrance research |
| Revivor of a dormant judgment | 2325.15, 2325.18 | A locatable debtor to serve the revivor petition on | Locate after years of silence |
Not one of those rows fails on an argument. Each fails on a fact, because Ohio put the address, the county, the employer and the garnishee into the statutory text itself. We are the factual layer: identity confirmation, a corroborated current address and county, employer and account-holder identification, and recorded property and business interests, each documented with its source and an honest confidence note. Your attorney is the legal layer: choosing the remedy, drafting the demand and affidavits, arguing exemptions, and driving the sale. We do not garnish, levy, record liens, contact debtors for payment, or advise on Ohio procedure – and we never pretext, impersonate, or access private financial account contents. Results are lawful public-records and permissible-purpose research, not a consumer report, and we are not a consumer reporting agency; nothing here should be used for an employment, tenant, credit or insurance decision.
When an Ohio Judgment Stalls
The situations that bring Ohio creditors and their counsel to us.
Only a Post Office Box
The file has a mail drop, so section 2329.02 will not take it and no certificate can be filed.
The Demand Came Back
The section 2716.02 notice was returned undelivered, so the 45-day window is burning.
A Trusteeship Was Filed
Wages are closed under section 2329.70, so the case now turns on property and accounts.
The Garnishment Went Quiet
Section 2329.07 credits a continuing garnishment only to the last payment or final report.
A Revivor With No One to Serve
The section 2325.15 petition still has to reach a debtor nobody has seen in years.
The Bank Order Missed Payroll
Served a day early, so section 2716.13 bound nothing but the balance already sitting there.
How We Work an Ohio Matter
Confirm, locate, research assets, document for counsel.
Confirm the Debtor
Identity matched to the judgment, so the right person is named on every Ohio filing.
Locate and County-Fix
A corroborated street address, not a box, and the county that controls venue and filing.
Research the Assets
Recorded property and encumbrances, vehicles, employment signals, business interests.
Document for Counsel
Each finding sourced and dated, with an honest note on how current and confirmed it is.
Who We Help Collect in Ohio
Creditors and counsel working Ohio judgments.
Judgment Creditors
One certificate per Ohio county
Collection Counsel
Filing under Chapters 2716 and 2333
Pro Se Creditors
Self-filed in a municipal court
Ohio Landlords
Money judgments after an eviction
Health-Care Creditors
Held by the 2329.66(A)(1)(a) rule
Lenders and Dealers
Deficiencies racing the 5-year clock
Whether a collection department or a self-represented creditor in a municipal court, the Ohio sequence is the same: confirm the debtor, pin the county, get a real street address, then find what is reachable before the 5-year clock or a trusteeship narrows the options. Our broader skip tracing services cover the locate side of the same work in other matters.
Our Commitment
We give an Ohio judgment the factual foundation its enforcement depends on, so that the certificate, the demand, the affidavit or the exam your counsel files lands on something real and inside the time Ohio allows. Lawful research since 2004. Never pretext, never private financial account contents, never a substitute for legal advice, and never a promise that a judgment will be collected. This is a public-records research firm; we neither practise law nor collect debts. And there is one request an Ohio judgment does not unlock: where the person to be found appears to have left because of abuse, is protected by a civil protection order issued under R.C. 3113.31, or is enrolled in the Ohio Secretary of State’s Safe at Home address confidentiality program, we stop and say so – a valid judgment does not change that answer, and neither does recasting the request as an asset search.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you collect a judgment in Ohio?
In this order: a certificate of judgment under section 2329.02, filed with the clerk of common pleas in each county where the debtor owns land, for the lien; the written demand required by section 2716.02 before any wage garnishment; a non-wage garnishment under sections 2716.11 and 2716.13 against a named bank; and a debtor examination under Chapter 2333 when you do not know what exists. Every one of those filings names a place or a person, which is why an Ohio file stalls on facts rather than law.
How long is an Ohio judgment good for, and what makes it go dormant?
A private judgment goes dormant 5 years after entry or after the last renewal unless one of 4 things happens in that window under section 2329.07: an execution issues, a certificate of judgment is issued and filed, a garnishment order is issued or continuing, or a proceeding in aid of execution is commenced or continuing. Dormancy is not expiry – a revivor action is available for 10 more years – so the practical outer limit is 5 plus 10. Judgments in favor of the state run on longer 10 and 15 year periods.
What is a certificate of judgment in Ohio, and what does it require?
It is the clerk-issued document that turns a judgment into a lien on land, and it only works county by county – filing in Franklin County does nothing about property in Summit County. Section 2329.02 requires 8 items, ending with the last known address of each judgment debtor, which cannot be a post office box. Registered land also has to be noted with the county recorder and memorialized on the certificate of title.
How much of a debtor’s wages can be garnished in Ohio?
Section 2329.66(A)(13) leaves the debtor the greater of 75% of disposable earnings or 30 times the current federal minimum hourly wage per week, 60 times if paid biweekly, 65 semimonthly and 130 monthly – so the ceiling is 25%. Ohio ties that floor to the federal minimum even though Ohio’s own minimum is higher. Under section 2716.041 the order is continuous, withholding each pay period until the judgment, costs and interest are paid.
What is an Ohio trusteeship, and can it stop my garnishment?
Yes – which is what makes the pre-garnishment demand double-edged. Section 2329.70 lets a debtor who has been served a section 2716.02 demand apply to a county or municipal judge where they live for a trustee, with the clerk of court serving in that role. While the debtor pays the non-exempt portion of earnings to the trustee, no creditor may bring or maintain garnishment, attachment or aid of execution against those earnings, and section 2716.041 terminates an existing continuous order. Levy on other non-exempt property is expressly preserved, and a dismissed trusteeship cannot be refiled for 6 months.
How much money is protected in an Ohio bank account?
Two different provisions apply and they are often confused. Section 2716.13 says the non-wage garnishment order binds only property over $400 in the garnishee’s possession at the time of service, and that threshold is not inflation-adjusted. Separately, section 2329.66(A)(3) gives the debtor a cash and deposits exemption which the Judicial Conference has adjusted to $625 for the cycle running to March 31, 2028. Because the order binds only the balance present when it is served, an Ohio bank garnishment is a snapshot rather than a standing claim on future deposits.
What is the Ohio judgment interest rate, and does it change?
It is not fixed in the statute. Section 5703.47 has the tax commissioner set it each October 15, and section 1343.03 applies that rate unless a written contract sets its own. The certified rate is 7% for 2026, 8% in 2025 and 2024, 5% in 2023 and 3% in 2022. Critically, section 1343.03(B) fixes whichever rate was in effect on the date of rendition and keeps it there until the judgment is satisfied, so an older Ohio judgment keeps its original rate for life – and section 2325.18(B) stops interest entirely between dormancy and revivor.
What is revivor in Ohio, and how long do I have to file it?
Revivor is Ohio’s statutory name for the action that brings a dormant judgment back to enforceable status – section 2325.15 is captioned “Revivor of dormant judgment or finding,” so “revival” is the popular word, not the code’s. Section 2325.18(A) allows it for 10 years from the date the judgment became dormant, extended if the creditor was a minor, of unsound mind or imprisoned at that moment. The debtor has to be served, and section 2325.16 permits service by publication only when the debtor is a nonresident and personal service was originally made – so a debtor who moved within Ohio has to be found, not published on. Section 2325.18(B) also refuses interest for the whole dormant stretch, which is why a revivor filed late recovers the judgment but not its yield.
Put Real Facts Behind Your Ohio Judgment
A certificate that cannot be filed for want of a street address, a demand that comes back undelivered, an exam noticed in the wrong county – these are research failures, not legal ones, and they are the ones we fix. Tell us about the debtor, what you already hold, and your permissible purpose. We will confirm identity, develop a corroborated street address and county, and research recorded property, encumbrances, vehicles, business interests and the employment and account-holder signals a section 2716.03 or 2716.11 affidavit has to name – documented and sourced, usually within 24 hours, and never a guarantee of collection. Contact us to get started.
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