If you have ever been involved in civil litigation, you know that civil court is quite different from its criminal counterpart. Everything from court proceedings to how judges and juries render their decisions is different in some way. That leads us to the idea of enforcement officers. What are they in a civil judgment scenario? What is their function?
Enforcement officers are a group of law enforcement professionals whose main task is to implement enforcement of civil litigation proceedings and the resulting judgments. Their legal authorities and abilities are limited by law. Enforcement officers exist to satisfy the constitutional separation of powers the American system dictates.
Separation of powers gives the judicial system authority to adjudicate the law. But courts do not have the authority to enforce. Enforcement is an administrative function, and it falls under the purview of law enforcement.
Types of Enforcement Officers
Judgment Collectors, a Salt Lake City, UT, judgment collection agency, explains that courts rely on different types of enforcement officers to carry out certain functions. At the top of the list are sheriffs. Sheriffs are more or less county-level law enforcement. They would manage most of the enforcement tasks involving cases at the state and county level.
Above and beyond sheriffs, courts rely on additional enforcement officers:
- Marshalls
- Bailiffs
- Constables
- Other court-appointed officers
A good example of a court-appointed officer is a process server. A process server is either an independent contractor or an employee of a company that offers such services. Their job is to serve the parties in a legal dispute with documents. A process server might hand deliver a subpoena to a defendant.
Tasks Delegated to Enforcement Officers
Given that there are so many different types of enforcement officers, it’s reasonable to ask about the sorts of tasks they perform. We have already mentioned serving legal documents. This is probably the most well-known enforcement task officers carry out. But there are others:
- Executing Garnishments – Most states allow garnishment of both wages and bank accounts. A court hands down a garnishment order and the sheriff enforces it.
- Property Seizure – When a judgment creditor requests a writ of execution to seize and sell property, it is the sheriff’s responsibility to enforce the order by physically seizing said property. A sheriff will also carry out eviction if necessary.
- Property Sale – Enforcement officers are the ones with the legal authority to sell seized property at auction.
The one thing all these tasks have in common is the authority to carry them out. That authority comes from the court. However, there is an added component: any such orders must be requested by the winning party, sometimes known as the judgment creditor.
Enforcement Is the Creditor’s Business
At the end of the day, the judgment creditor is responsible for enforcement. For example, a court will not automatically garnish a debtor’s wages after entering a judgment against him. No such order will be issued unless the creditor makes a formal request of the court to do so. Likewise for property seizures, levying judgment liens, and so forth.
What does this mean for enforcement officers? The authority in any particular case is also limited by whatever actions the creditor decides to take. A sheriff cannot, of his own doing, seize someone’s property and sell it. There needs to be a court order initiated by a request from the judgment creditor.
Although this may seem complicated, it all works out to the benefit of the average citizen. By practicing the separation of powers, both courts and enforcement officers are prevented from exercising too much power.
