Judgment Recovery is a business where you attempt to collect unpaid civil or small claims judgments and of course keep a portion of the collected amount, or pay the person due the judgment a set price for the right to pursue the claim. Some reports show that 80 percent of judgments go uncollected and there are no current licensing requirements but certain states have been showing opinions from banking or bar associations that anyone doing it should be a licensed collection agency (couldn’t find any legal challenges though) or that the person should buy the claim for a set amount up front.

This sounds like a fun business but also a lot of work when it comes down to tracking down people who have basically run from a judgement. This might be a good bridge business for someone who’s already a private detective, since I’m sure finding the person and their accounts is the hard part to it all. From there it’s a matter of using the courts to garnish wages, put liens on property, cars, or whatever else to secure payment of the judgement.

You’d also have to determine if they hid assets like in offshore accounts or could prove they transferred all their possessions and money to a spouse or relative, which could make it a lot more difficult (but in many of those cases the person getting all their stuff might not have claimed in on their income tax so that might offer some leverage).

This is one business model that I think would require a lot of time and investment, as well as travel. There’s several books on the subject but actually speaking with someone who does it would probably be the best way to determine if it’s for you.