The domestication of a foreign judgment in Florida allows you to collect the monies owed to you from a foreign judgment from another state or country if the defendant lives in Florida, owns property or assets in Florida, or is a company who is domiciled in Florida.
Once the judgment has been domesticated to Florida, it is enforceable in the same way as any other Florida judgment. You must domesticate the foreign judgment in order to be able to collect on a foreign judgment in Florida.
In order to domesticate and collect on a foreign judgment in Florida, the judgment must be a final judgment, and it must be enforceable in the country or state in which it was issued. If the court was not impartial, did not adhere do due process, or did not have jurisdiction over the case, then the judgment may not be enforceable in both that jurisdiction and in Florida.
Judgments issued in another state are domesticated under the Florida Domestication of Foreign Judgments Act, and judgments from another country are domesticated in Florida under Florida’s Uniform Out-of-country Foreign Money-Judgment Recognition Act.
