// Skip tracing
Skip tracing for judgment recovery
Hold a judgment? Locating the debtor to collect is a recognized non-FCRA use. Keep it to locating, and stay off credit and ability-to-pay data.
The short answer
If you hold a court judgment against someone, skip tracing helps you locate them and their assets to collect. Locating a judgment debtor is a recognized non-FCRA purpose, since you already have a judgment. Keep the use to locating, and avoid pulling credit or ability-to-pay data, which re-triggers FCRA rules.
A judgment gives you a reason to locate
Winning a judgment is only half the job; collecting it means finding the person and what they own. Because you already hold the judgment, locating the debtor to enforce it is a legitimate, recognized use of skip-trace data, separate from the credit-decision uses the FCRA governs.
Locate, don't score
The line to watch is between locating a debtor and assessing their creditworthiness. Finding a current address, phone, or employer to enforce a judgment is a locate. Pulling a credit report or an ability-to-pay score is an FCRA use that needs a permissible purpose and the right data. Stay on the locate side.
What you're actually looking for
Enforcement needs more than a phone number. To collect on a judgment you usually want the debtor's current address for service, a working phone, and where they earn or bank, since a wage garnishment or bank levy is how many judgments actually get paid. Employer and asset information sit at the edge of locate work, so keep to what public and licensed locate data supports and hand the harder asset searches to a licensed investigator or your attorney.
Where Trackyr fits
For the locate side, Trackyr verifies and DNC-scrubs the contact data you gather on a judgment debtor. It is non-FCRA locate and marketing data, not credit data, so it fits the locating job and not the credit-decision one.
// Common questions
Answered.
Can I skip trace someone I have a judgment against?+
Yes. Locating a debtor you hold a judgment against to enforce and collect is a recognized non-FCRA use. Keep it to locating and avoid credit or ability-to-pay data, which brings FCRA rules back in.
Is judgment recovery skip tracing FCRA-regulated?+
The locate itself is a non-FCRA use because you already have the judgment. It becomes FCRA-regulated the moment you pull a credit report or assess ability to pay, which requires a permissible purpose and consumer-report data.
// Keep reading
More on skip tracing.
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Read →Skip tracing laws in Texas: licensing, privacy, and DNC rules
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Read →Skip tracing laws in Florida: licensing, privacy, and DNC rules
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Read →Put this into practice.
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