A money judgment in Alabama lasts ten years from the date it is entered. After that, it is presumed satisfied unless the creditor takes action to revive it, and even a revived judgment cannot be enforced beyond twenty years from the original entry date. So the practical answer to how long a judgment lasts in Alabama is ten years by default, twenty years at the absolute outside.
The Ten-Year Enforcement Window
Alabama Code 6-9-191 sets the basic rule. Once ten years pass from the date a judgment is entered without any execution issuing on it, the judgment is presumed satisfied, and the creditor carries the burden of proving the debt is still owed.1Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-9-191 – Judgment Presumed Satisfied 10 Years After Entry or Execution The same ten-year presumption applies from the date of the last execution, so a creditor who issues a writ in year eight does not automatically get a fresh decade; the clock still runs from that most recent execution.
During those ten years, the judgment is fully live. The creditor can garnish wages, levy bank accounts, and seize non-exempt property. That is the window in which collection actually happens.
Reviving a Judgment for a Second Decade
A judgment that hits the ten-year mark is not automatically dead. Under Alabama Code 6-9-192, the creditor can file a motion to revive it in the court that entered it, and if the court grants revival, the judgment becomes enforceable for another ten years.2Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-9-192 – Revival of Judgment of District or Circuit Court When Execution Did Not Issue The motion follows the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure; the older scire facias process has been replaced.
The outer boundary is fixed. Alabama Code 6-9-190 bars revival of any judgment once twenty years have passed from the date of entry.3Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-9-190 – Revival Barred After 20 Years That means a judgment gets one revival at most: the first ten-year period, plus a second ten-year period if revived. If a creditor never files for revival, the judgment becomes permanently unenforceable at the twenty-year mark. And if a creditor waits too long even within the twenty years, the revival window can close.
If you are the debtor and receive a revival motion, you can contest it by showing the debt was already paid or that the motion was not properly filed.
What Happens to Judgment Liens on Real Estate
When a creditor records a certificate of judgment with the probate judge in a county where the debtor owns real property, the judgment becomes a lien on that property.4Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-9-210 – Certificate of Clerk or Register to Be Filed with Probate Judge That lien has its own ten-year life, tied to the date of the judgment.5Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-9-211 – Judgment Constitutes Lien on Property of Defendant
There is one way the lien stretches beyond ten years. If the creditor files a lawsuit to enforce the lien within the ten-year window and records a lis pendens notice with the probate court, the lien survives past the ten-year mark until the enforcement action is resolved.5Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-9-211 – Judgment Constitutes Lien on Property of Defendant Without that step, the recorded lien expires with the enforcement window and title clears.
One catch worth knowing on the creditor side: a certificate has to be filed in every county where the debtor owns property. A lien recorded in Jefferson County does not touch land in Mobile County.
Interest Keeps Running the Whole Time
An unpaid judgment grows every year it sits. For contract-based judgments, interest runs at the rate the contract sets, calculated from the date the cause of action arose. For all other judgments, the rate is 7.5 percent per year.6Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 8-8-10 – Interest on Money Judgments
At 7.5 percent annually, a $20,000 judgment adds $1,500 in interest each year. Left alone for a full ten-year enforcement window, that is $15,000 tacked onto the original amount, and interest keeps accruing if the judgment is revived. The longer the judgment lives, the larger the number the debtor is on the hook for.
When the Judgment Expires
Once a judgment passes the ten-year mark without revival, or hits the twenty-year ceiling, the creditor loses the legal tools to collect it. No wage garnishment, no bank levies, no property seizures. Any recorded judgment liens expire automatically at the ten-year mark, and the debtor’s property title clears.5Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-9-211 – Judgment Constitutes Lien on Property of Defendant
Expiration does not erase the underlying debt. The obligation technically still exists; the creditor just has no way to force payment. Credit reporting agencies stopped including civil judgments in consumer credit reports in 2017, so an expired judgment is unlikely to show up there. Lenders who search courthouse records directly may still find it, which does not usually sink a loan application on its own but can prompt questions.
Out-of-State Judgments and the Alabama Clock
Alabama has adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, so a creditor holding a judgment from another state can domesticate it here by filing an authenticated copy with any circuit court clerk. The clerk records it on a special foreign judgment docket, and after a 30-day waiting period the creditor can use the same collection methods available for any Alabama judgment. The debtor gets notice and can challenge the filing on grounds such as fraud or lack of jurisdiction in the original court.
Domesticating a judgment does not reset any clock. The judgment remains subject to the originating state’s time limits, and Alabama’s ten-year enforcement window applies to collection activity taking place here. An old judgment brought in from elsewhere does not get a fresh twenty years to run.
The process works the other direction too. If the debtor moves out of Alabama or holds property in another state, the Alabama creditor can file the judgment in that state under its version of the Act rather than starting a new lawsuit.