Timetable: one to 12 months. The average debtor does not have a surplus of available assets. The average judgment enforcement is like a chess game, where it takes several attempts to recover the judgment, one chunk at a time, over the long term. Eventually many debtors (having some assets) smell the coffee and eventually settle or pay off the judgment. Timetable: six months to five years. The worst case debtor is either very poor or a clever fraud. Perhaps they hid their assets or use many names and social security numbers. For well-practiced frauds or very poor debtors, it is a long shot to recover money on a judgment.