The Debtor Examination: Putting the Deadbeat Under Oath About His Money

He can dodge your calls but not a court order to appear and answer. The judgment debtor exam maps his employers, accounts, assets, and schemes — under penalty of perjury, with arrest exposure for skipping it.

What California Law Says

Support creditors may notice examinations requiring the payor to appear and answer asset questions under oath, produce documents by subpoena, and face bench warrants for nonappearance. Third parties holding his assets — employers, business partners, the girlfriend with the account — can be examined too.

How to Collect, Step by Step

1. Notice the exam through the family court with a document subpoena attached: bank statements, tax returns, pay records.
2. Prepare the question map: income sources, accounts, property, transfers to third parties, crypto.
3. Ask about the last two years of transfers — fraudulent conveyance leads live here.
4. Request a bench warrant on nonappearance; the second notice tends to be honored.
5. Convert the answers into action: levy the disclosed accounts, garnish the disclosed job, lien the disclosed property.

Common Questions

What stops him from lying under oath?

Perjury exposure, the documents you subpoenaed that contradict him, and the follow-up levies that test every answer — lies at debtor exams have short lives.

Can I really examine his girlfriend about the account he uses?

Third persons holding or controlling his assets are examinable — the arrangement he thinks hides money instead widens the net.