A civil judgment in Florida is good for 20 years from the date the court enters it. That is the full answer to how long a judgment is good for in Florida, and it is set by Florida Statute 55.081.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 55.081 – Statute of Limitations, Lien of Judgment But the practical picture is more complicated, because the liens that secure a judgment against the debtor’s real and personal property run on much shorter clocks and have to be renewed to stay alive. A creditor can still hold a valid, enforceable judgment and have lost the lien position that made collecting on it realistic.
The 20-Year Outer Limit
Section 55.081 says no judgment is a lien on real or personal property in Florida after 20 years from the date of entry.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 55.081 – Statute of Limitations, Lien of Judgment That is the ceiling. Once those 20 years run out, the court’s collection tools, including garnishment, bank levies, and seizure, are off the table. No renewal, extension, or re-recording pushes a Florida judgment past the 20-year mark.
During the 20 years, the creditor can pursue collection whether or not the judgment has been recorded as a lien against any specific piece of property. Recording a lien is a separate step. It gives the creditor priority against the debtor’s property, but the right to chase income and non-exempt assets through garnishment or levy exists for the full enforcement period on the strength of the judgment itself.
Real Property Liens Run on a 10-Year Clock
When a creditor records a certified copy of the judgment in a county’s official records, the judgment becomes a lien on the debtor’s real property in that county. For judgments recorded on or after July 1, 1994, that lien lasts 10 years from the date of recording.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 55.10 – Judgments, Orders, and Decrees; Lien of All, Generally; Extension of Liens; Transfer of Liens to Other Security The lien attaches only in the county where the certified copy is recorded, so a creditor who wants to encumber property in multiple counties has to record in each one.
One technicality catches people off guard. The judgment itself must contain the creditor’s address, or the creditor must simultaneously record an affidavit stating that address. If neither is present, no lien is created at all.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 55.10 – Judgments, Orders, and Decrees; Lien of All, Generally; Extension of Liens; Transfer of Liens to Other Security
Extending a Real Property Lien
Extending the real property lien does not require a motion, a hearing, or service on the debtor. The creditor rerecords a certified copy of the judgment in the same county’s official records before the current lien expires, along with an affidavit stating the creditor’s current address. If the affidavit is missing, the extension fails.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 55.10 – Judgments, Orders, and Decrees; Lien of All, Generally; Extension of Liens; Transfer of Liens to Other Security
Each extension adds another 10 years measured from the rerecording date, but no extension can push the real property lien past the 20-year enforceability ceiling in Section 55.081.2Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 55.10 – Judgments, Orders, and Decrees; Lien of All, Generally; Extension of Liens; Transfer of Liens to Other Security If the creditor waits until year 15 of the judgment to record the lien, the lien will not run a full 10 years. It expires at the 20-year mark along with the judgment.
Timing matters. If the lien lapses before the creditor rerecords, the extension is lost. The judgment stays enforceable, but the secured position against real property in that county is gone.
Personal Property Liens Run on a 5-Year Clock
Liens on personal property work differently. Rather than recording with a county clerk, the creditor files a judgment lien certificate with the Florida Department of State. That filing creates a lien on the debtor’s personal property and serves as public notice of the claim. The lien is valid for five years from the original filing date. Florida law allows one second judgment lien certificate to extend the lien for an additional five years, and no further extensions are available after that.3Florida Department of State. Judgment Lien
Interest Accrues the Whole Time
A Florida judgment earns interest from the date of entry until it is paid in full. The rate is not fixed. The Chief Financial Officer sets it quarterly by averaging the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s discount rate over the preceding 12 months and adding 400 basis points. For judgments entered on or after January 1, 1995, the rate adjusts annually on January 1 to match the CFO’s rate for that quarter. The judgment itself has to state the applicable interest rate on its face, and a sheriff is not required to execute on a judgment that omits it.4Justia Law. Florida Statutes 55.03 – Judgments; Rate of Interest, Generally For the quarter beginning January 1, 2026, the rate is 8.44% per year, dropping to 8.25% for the quarter beginning April 1, 2026.5MyFloridaCFO. Judgment Interest Rates At those rates, a $50,000 judgment adds roughly $4,000 in interest each year. Over the full 20-year enforceability window, accrued interest can exceed the original judgment amount.
What a Creditor Can Actually Reach
Twenty years of enforceability does not mean 20 years of easy collection. Florida offers some of the strongest debtor exemptions in the country, and understanding them is part of understanding what “good for” really means on the ground.
Homestead
The Florida Constitution exempts a debtor’s homestead from forced sale under any judgment. Outside a municipality, the exemption covers up to 160 acres of contiguous land and improvements. Inside a municipality, it covers up to one-half acre. No judgment, decree, or execution creates a lien on this property. The only carve-outs are debts for taxes and assessments on the property, obligations incurred to purchase the home, and debts for labor, services, or materials used to improve or repair it.6Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes Title XV – Homestead and Exemptions In most consumer debt and tort cases, the creditor cannot force the sale of the home no matter how large the judgment.
Wages
Florida also protects wages heavily. If you qualify as a head of family, meaning you provide more than half the support for a child or other dependent, your disposable earnings up to $750 per week are completely exempt from garnishment. Even above that threshold, a creditor cannot garnish wages unless you previously agreed to it in a specific written waiver meeting strict formatting requirements.7Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment For non-heads-of-family, the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act caps garnishment at 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, whichever is less.
Exempt earnings deposited into a bank account stay exempt from garnishment for six months after the financial institution receives them, as long as the funds can be traced back to earnings. Mixing exempt wages with other money in the same account does not automatically destroy the exemption.7Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment
Out-of-State and Federal Judgments
A judgment from another state is not automatically enforceable in Florida. It has to be domesticated under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act in Sections 55.501 through 55.509, generally by filing a certified copy with the clerk of court in the Florida county where the debtor has assets or resides.8Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 55.501 – Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act; Short Title Once domesticated, the out-of-state judgment is treated like any Florida judgment and runs on the same 20-year clock.
Federal judgments follow a similar path. A judgment for money or property entered in any federal court can be registered in another district by filing a certified copy, giving it the same effect as if the receiving district had entered it.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1963 – Registration of Judgments for Enforcement in Other Districts A federal judgment can also be domesticated in Florida state court to access state-level collection tools.
Child Support and Alimony Are Different
Child support and alimony judgments do not follow the ordinary 55.081 pattern. Liens securing child support obligations lapse 20 years after the original filing of the document that established the lien, and a second lien based on the same filing cannot be obtained.10Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 55.204 The underlying obligations have their own rules. Child support typically runs until the child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever is later, but unpaid arrears can be enforced well beyond that. Alimony follows the terms of the court order, and some forms can continue indefinitely until modified or terminated by a qualifying event.
How a Judgment Ends Before 20 Years
A Florida judgment stops being enforceable in a few ways short of the full 20-year run. The most straightforward is payment. Once the debtor pays the full amount owed, including accrued interest, the creditor files a satisfaction of judgment with the court, and if the judgment was recorded as a lien in any county, the satisfaction should be recorded there too.
A judgment also ends if it is vacated or reversed on appeal, which erases it as though it never existed. And a creditor who simply lets the 20-year period expire without acting loses the judgment. The underlying debt may still technically exist, but with no live judgment, there is no court mechanism to compel payment, and separate statutes of limitation may bar filing a new lawsuit on the same debt.