What this procedure is for
Our guide to collecting a judgment covers the general 30-day window and the two main enforcement tools, wage garnishment and bank levies. Both of those tools have a catch: you have to already know where the debtor works or banks. A judgment debtor examination exists for the more common case, where you don't. It's a court hearing that forces the debtor to disclose that information themselves, in person, answering questions about their income, bank accounts, real estate, vehicles, and other property.
Which form to file: SC-134 or SC-136
Most creditors file form SC-134, Application and Order to Produce Statement of Assets and to Appear for Examination. But if the underlying judgment concerns consumer debt, meaning money owed for a personal, family, or household purpose rather than a business one, you file form SC-136, Application and Order to Produce Financial Statement or Appear for Examination, Consumer Debt, instead. The two forms cover the same idea, appearing to answer questions about assets, but consumer debt cases carry extra notice requirements built into the SC-136 process. Check the judgment itself if you're not sure which category your case falls into.
Filing the application
You file the completed application with the court that entered the judgment, or the court for the county where the debtor now lives or has a place of business. The filing fee is $60 (Code Civ. Proc. § 708.110), and once you have a judgment against the debtor for the underlying claim, you can ask the court to add this $60 as a further cost the debtor owes, on top of the original judgment amount. A judge or clerk reviews the application and, if it's in order, signs an order setting the date, time, and place of the examination.
Serving the order: the 30-day rule
Once the order is signed, you don't hand it to the debtor yourself. It has to be personally served, meaning a sheriff, marshal, or registered process server delivers it directly to the debtor, and that service has to happen at least 30 days before the examination date. Miss that window and the exam date generally has to be reset. This is the same personal-service requirement that shows up throughout small claims procedure: paperwork that can force someone into court, or expose them to real consequences for ignoring it, has to reach them directly, not by mail or a note left at the door.
The warning printed on the order
Code Civ. Proc. § 708.110 requires the order itself to carry this warning in bold or capital letters, not buried in fine print. It's a statutory notice about what the court can do to someone who ignores a valid order, not something a creditor adds for effect.
The 150-mile rule
An examination generally has to be held in a court located in the county where the debtor lives or has a place of business, unless that location is within 150 miles of the court where you'd otherwise hold it. If the debtor lives further away than that, the exam gets scheduled in their county instead of yours. This matters most when a debtor has moved since the original case, since it can mean re-filing the application somewhere new rather than proceeding where the judgment was entered.
What happens at the examination
The debtor appears in court and answers questions, usually under oath, about their income, employer, bank accounts, real property, vehicles, and other assets. A judge or, in some counties, a court-appointed referee runs the hearing. You, or a process server on your behalf, can also serve a subpoena (form SC-107) beforehand requiring the debtor to bring specific records, like pay stubs or bank statements, to the exam.
What comes out of that testimony is information, not money. Once you know where the debtor banks or works, that's what lets you pursue the actual collection tools: a wage garnishment through the debtor's employer, or a bank levy through their bank, both carried out by a sheriff or levying officer, not by you directly. Those tools and the general 30-day collection timeline are covered in our judgment collection guide.
If the debtor already filed a Statement of Assets
Sometimes a debtor has already completed a Statement of Assets (form SC-133) earlier in the process without a full hearing. In that situation, courts generally use a different form, Application and Order for Appearance and Examination (form EJ-125), to schedule the actual exam, rather than SC-134 again.