Registration of Judgment Law and Legal Definition
A registration of judgment is an official recording of the award made in a lawsuit for purposes of serving public notice of the debt owed by the defendant. Statutes dealing with registration of judgments usually provide that such registration will constitute a lien on the property of the judgment debtor for a certain period of time after the recorded date of the judgment. Once the judgment is registered, the public is deemed to have notice of the existence of the lien on the judgment debtor's property created by the registration.
The following is an example of a state statute dealing with registration of judgments:
"The owner of any judgment entered in any court of this state or of the United States held in this state may file in the office of the judge of probate of any county of this state a certificate of the clerk or register of the court by which the judgment was entered, which certificate shall show the style of the court which entered the judgment, the amount and date thereof, the amount of costs, the names of all parties thereto and the name of the plaintiff's attorney and shall be registered by the judge of probate in a book to be kept by him for that purpose, which said register shall also show the date of the filing of the judgment. Said judge shall make a proper index to said book, which shall also show under the proper letter or letters of the alphabet the names of each and every defendant to said judgment, and such judgments shall be recorded in chronological order of the filing of such judgments. Such certificate shall also show the address of each defendant or respondent, as shown in the court proceedings."
