Introduction

​         A plaintiff should always be mindful of the defendant transferring or hiding assets during litigation to avoid having to pay a future judgment. Massachusetts offers plaintiffs a variety of prejudgment security remedies to mitigate this risk. All of these remedies involve the plaintiff filing a motion with the court requesting that the court issue an order “freezing” (also known as “attaching”) one or more assets of the defendant. This has the effect of preventing the defendant, or a third-party holding funds of the defendant like a bank, from transferring assets while the litigation is taking place. If the plaintiff then wins the case by getting a judgment against the defendant, then the plaintiff can seek a further order transferring those assets to the plaintiff to be applied towards the balance of the judgment. Specific examples of prejudgment security remedies will be discussed below.

On April 1, 2019, Massachusetts adopted the "Massachusetts Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (the "Act"). M.G.L. Ch. 218, § 4A. Under the Act, any plaintiff, or plaintiff in counterclaim, who has a judgment from an out of state court can obtain a Massachusetts judgment. Prior to the adoption of the Act, a plaintiff would need to initiate a new law suit, although a simpler one, in order to obtain a Massachusetts judgment.

​What happens when a company owes you money but does not have enough assets to pay you? How can you enforce collection of the debt when the company is insolvent? For example, a buyer sends money to a company and receives damaged goods in return, or the buyer receives nothing at all. Or, a creditor might have loaned money to a company that is in default on repayment. If the debtor company has no assets in the company name, such as real estate or bank accounts, or if the company is out of business, suing the company and getting a judgment against them wont result in repayment of the debt. Maybe the owners of those companies, though, do have enough assets to repay the debt.