Monitoring an Individual Debtor

What "Individual" Monitoring Means

Selecting Individual tells the system you are monitoring a natural person — a human being who is the named judgment debtor, as opposed to a corporation, LLC, or other legal entity. The individual monitoring mode uses personal-name matching logic and queries data sources that index records by person name rather than entity name.

Use Individual monitoring when your judgment names a person: a former tenant, a contractor, a business owner personally, or anyone who signed a contract or lease in their own name. If the judgment is against an LLC or corporation, use Business monitoring instead. If the judgment names both a person and a company, add two separate entries — one for each.

Data Sources Searched for Individuals

An individual sweep queries every applicable public data source simultaneously. Each source uses the person's first and last name (plus state) as the primary search key:

How Name Matching Works

The system uses the first name and last name you provide as the primary search keys. Name matching is designed to be precise enough to avoid flooding you with false positives, while flexible enough to catch records where the name appears in slightly different form.

Middle names and initials

If you enter a middle name or middle initial, the system uses it to narrow results — records that include the matching middle name or initial rank higher and are preferred. Records with no middle name present are still returned. Records where the middle name is actively different from what you entered are suppressed. This means entering a middle name generally improves precision without eliminating valid matches.

Suffixes — Jr., Sr., II, III

Name suffixes matter in records. If your debtor is "Robert J. Williams Jr." and you enter only "Robert Williams," some records filed with the "Jr." suffix may not match. Enter the suffix exactly as it appears on the judgment. If you are unsure whether the debtor consistently uses the suffix in public records, consider adding two separate entries — one with and one without the suffix — to capture both variants.

Why the exact legal name matters

Public records — especially property deeds and court filings — reflect the name as the filing party provided it. A debtor who goes by "Mike" but whose legal name is "Michael" may appear in deeds as "Michael" even if everyone knows him as "Mike." Always use the legal name as it appears on the judgment document, not a nickname or shortened form.

Optional Fields That Improve Precision

Beyond first name, last name, and state, two optional fields can significantly narrow results in high-collision situations — where the debtor has a common name that appears frequently in public records:

• City — Providing the debtor's city or last known city filters property and court results to that metropolitan area. Particularly useful in large states like California, Texas, or Florida where a common name like "John Garcia" may produce hundreds of matches.
• County — If you know which county the debtor lives or owns property in, entering it focuses the property record search on that county first. Results from other counties in the state are still searched but ranked lower.

These fields are optional — the search runs on name and state alone if you leave them blank. Add them only when you have reliable information; an incorrect city could cause you to miss valid matches in the right area.

Common Pitfalls

Nickname vs. legal name

Entering "Bill" when the legal name is "William," "Liz" for "Elizabeth," or "Bobby" for "Robert" will miss records filed under the legal name. Public filings use legal names. Always start with the legal name as it appears on the judgment.

Maiden names and married name changes

A judgment debtor who was "Sarah Johnson" at the time of judgment may now hold property or register businesses as "Sarah Martinez" after a name change. The system searches the name you provide — it does not automatically search prior or subsequent names. If you know of a name change, add a separate entry for the current legal name.

Hyphenated names

Some debtors use hyphenated surnames (e.g., "Rivera-Gonzalez") in some records and a single surname in others. If the debtor uses both forms, consider adding entries for each variation to ensure you capture records filed under either form.

When to Add Multiple Name Entries

The most common reason to add multiple entries for the same person is to cover known name variations. Each entry is a separate debtor seat, but the coverage difference can be significant:

• Aliases and known prior names — If the debtor has used other names in the past, add each one as a separate Individual entry for the same state.
• Maiden name after marriage — Property acquired before the name change may still appear under the maiden name. Add both.
• With and without suffix — If you are unsure whether the debtor consistently uses "Jr." in public filings, add both "Robert Williams Jr." and "Robert Williams" as separate entries.

Monitoring Across Multiple States

Each debtor entry is scoped to a single state. Property record searches cover all counties in that state, and court record searches are similarly state-filtered. If you have reason to believe the debtor owns property or has filed business entities in multiple states, you must add a separate Individual entry for each state.

A common scenario: a debtor who lived in Florida at the time of judgment has since relocated to Georgia. Add entries for both Florida (they may still own property there) and Georgia (where new activity is likely). Each entry counts toward your plan's debtor limit.

Sole Proprietors: Always Monitor as Individual

A sole proprietor operating under a trade name — "Bob's Plumbing," "Sunrise Cleaning," "Mary's Bookkeeping" — is not a separate legal entity. Legally, the owner and the business are the same person. All assets — property, vehicles, bank accounts — are held in the owner's personal name.

Enter the owner's legal personal name as the Individual debtor. The trade name is irrelevant for monitoring purposes. Property deeds will show the owner's name. Court records will name the individual. There is no LLC to search because no LLC exists.

If you are unsure whether the debtor has ever formed a formal entity, the Individual sweep will surface any business entity filings where their name appears as agent or organizer — giving you the answer without guessing.

When a Business Entity Is Found

When an Individual sweep surfaces a result showing your debtor is named as a registered agent, organizer, officer, or owner of a business entity, you will see that finding on the alert card as a new business entity result. The card displays the company name, state, status, and formation date.

If the entity appears to be active and worth monitoring, an alert card will include a Track This Business button. Clicking it opens the Add Debtor modal pre-filled with the company's legal name and state — you confirm and it is added as a separate Business debtor entry. See Tracking Associated Business Entities for guidance on when this is worth doing.