Form EJ-130 California Writ of Execution: Filing, Sheriff, and Renewal

To fill out Form EJ-130, California’s Writ of Execution, you enter the county of enforcement, the judgment creditor and debtor, the date the judgment was entered, and a line-by-line calculation of what is owed, then take the completed form to the clerk of the court that entered the original judgment. The clerk checks it against the case file, signs and seals it, and charges a $40 issuance fee. The form itself does not collect anything; it is the authority a sheriff or marshal needs before touching the debtor’s assets.

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull your court file and any post-judgment paperwork before you open the form. You need the exact date the court entered the judgment, the case number, the court where the case was heard, and any renewal dates. Get the judgment debtor’s full legal name and last known address as they appear on the judgment. If the debtor is a business, note whether it is a corporation, LLC, or partnership. The writ reaches only the person or entity named on it.

Then do the money. Start with the original judgment amount. Add post-judgment interest, which California sets at 10 percent per year on the unpaid principal balance.¹ If you have spent money enforcing the judgment — filing fees, process server charges, earlier writ fees — file a Memorandum of Costs After Judgment (Form MC-012) with the clerk before you complete the writ.² The MC-012 is how the court formally recognizes those costs so you can add them to the writ. You can only claim costs incurred within the past two years.³ Subtract any payments the debtor has already made. What remains — original principal, plus approved costs, plus accrued interest, minus credits — is the balance the sheriff will be authorized to collect.

Completing the Form Item by Item

Download the current version of Form EJ-130 from the California Courts website.⁴ At the top of page one, check the box labeled “EXECUTION (Money Judgment).” Then work through the numbered items.

Identifying Information (Items 1–8)

Item 1: The county where the writ will be enforced. This is the county where the debtor’s assets are, which is not always the county where the judgment was entered. You need a separate writ for each county where you plan to levy.⁵
Item 3: The full name of the judgment creditor (you, or whoever is owed the money). Check the box below to indicate whether you are the original creditor or an assignee.
Item 4: The judgment debtor’s full legal name and last known address. If there is more than one debtor, check the box for additional debtors and list them in item 21 on page two.
Item 5: The date the court entered the final judgment. Not the filing date, not the trial date.
Item 6: Complete only if the judgment has been renewed. Enter each renewal date.
Item 7: Check box (a) if no one has requested notice of sale. If someone has, check box (b) and provide that person’s name and mailing address.
Item 8: Leave unchecked unless joint debtors were added after the original judgment. If they were, list the additional dates, names, and addresses in item 23 on page two.

The Money Calculation (Items 11–18)

These numbers have to match your court file and MC-012 exactly, or the clerk will reject the form.

Item 11: The total judgment amount from the original order, including both principal and any costs listed on the judgment itself.
Item 12: Any post-judgment costs from your MC-012 filing that have not been satisfied.
Item 13: Items 11 and 12 added together.
Item 14: Credits for payments the debtor has already made.
Item 15: Item 13 minus item 14.
Item 16: The total accrued interest you claimed on your MC-012.
Item 17: The $40 writ issuance fee.
Item 18: Items 15, 16, and 17 added together. This is the total the levying officer is authorized to collect.

If the judgment is against multiple debtors for different amounts, skip items 11 through 19, check box 20, and use an attachment form to break out each debtor’s individual balance. Leave the signature and date lines at the bottom of page two blank. Those are for the court clerk.⁶

Filing the Writ with the Clerk

Take the completed form to the clerk of the court that entered the original judgment. The clerk checks the writ against the case file and, if everything lines up, signs and seals it. The statewide issuance fee is $40, set by Government Code section 70626(a)(1).⁷ If you cannot afford the fee, you can ask the court to waive it by filing a Request to Waive Court Fees (Form FW-001).

Common reasons a writ gets kicked back: the judgment amount does not match the court’s records, the debtor’s name is spelled differently than it appears on the judgment, or costs were claimed without an MC-012 on file. Double-check every dollar figure against your court records before you walk up to the window.

Getting the Signed Writ to the Sheriff

A signed writ sitting in your file does not collect anything. You still have to deliver it to the levying officer in the county named on the form. Under California law, the levying officer is the county sheriff or marshal.⁸ And you cannot simply hand over the writ. The sheriff needs written instructions telling the officer exactly which assets to go after. Nothing happens without that direction from you.

The accompanying forms depend on the type of levy. A bank account levy typically takes a Notice of Levy (Form EJ-150) and a blank Memorandum of Garnishee (EJ-152), plus a completed Request for Sheriff to Serve Court Papers (Form SER-001) and Special Instructions (Form SER-001A). Wage garnishment uses a separate set of earnings withholding order forms. The sheriff’s civil division in the enforcement county can tell you what they require for each asset type and the current deposit amount, which varies by county and by what you are levying on.

How Long the Writ Is Good For

The writ has two overlapping clocks. Under CCP section 699.560, if the sheriff makes no levy within 180 days of issuance, the writ expires and must be returned to the court. If a levy does happen within those first 180 days, the writ can stay active for up to two years from the issuance date.⁹ The writ also ends earlier if the sheriff finishes all duties under it, you ask in writing for its return, or the judgment’s enforcement period runs out.

You can get successive writs until the judgment is paid in full, but you cannot have a new writ issued for the same county until the prior one for that county has expired or been returned.⁵

What the Writ Will Not Reach

Before you instruct the sheriff, know that a writ of execution does not reach everything the debtor owns or earns.

California’s exemption statutes under CCP section 704 protect categories of property from execution, including homestead equity, a limited amount of motor vehicle equity, household furnishings reasonably necessary for the household, tools of trade, jewelry and heirlooms within a cap, health aids, limited amounts in bank accounts holding direct-deposited Social Security or public benefits, and unmatured life insurance up to a loan-value cap.¹⁰ Social Security benefits also carry federal protection under section 207 of the Social Security Act, with narrow exceptions for federal taxes and child or spousal support.¹¹

Wage garnishment runs under its own cap: the lesser of 20 percent of the debtor’s disposable earnings for the pay period, or 40 percent of the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 48 times the applicable minimum hourly wage, with any higher local minimum wage controlling.¹²

If the debtor files for bankruptcy, 11 U.S.C. section 362 imposes an automatic stay that freezes almost all collection activity, including enforcement of your writ, from the moment the petition is filed.¹³ If you learn of a bankruptcy filing, stop enforcement and contact the sheriff to halt any pending levy; violating the stay can expose you to sanctions.

Renewing the Underlying Judgment

A California money judgment is enforceable for 10 years from the date it was entered. If the balance is still unpaid as that deadline nears, filing a renewal application before the judgment expires extends enforceability for another 10 years. You cannot file a renewal application within five years of a prior renewal. Medical-expense judgments with less than $200,000 remaining and personal-debt judgments with less than $50,000 remaining can each be renewed only once.¹⁴ Let the 10-year window close without renewing and the judgment becomes unenforceable; no further writ of execution can issue against the debtor.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 685.010
2
California Courts | Self Help Guide. Memorandum of Costs After Judgment, Acknowledgment of Credit, and Declaration of Accrued Interest (MC-012)
3
Judicial Council of California. MC-012 Memorandum of Costs After Judgment, Acknowledgment of Credit, and Declaration of Accrued Interest
4
California Courts | Self Help Guide. Writ of Execution (EJ-130)
5
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 699.510
6
Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. How to Complete the Writ of Execution (Form EJ-130)
7
California Courts. Superior Court of California Statewide Civil Fee Schedule
8
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 680.260
9
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 699.560
10
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 704
11
Social Security Administration. Levy and Garnishment of Benefits
12
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 706.050
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 Automatic Stay
14
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 683.110