(a) Entry of money judgment against an individual. —
(1) Notice by Clerk. — Upon entry of a money judgment against an individual, the clerk shall provide or send to the judgment debtor a Notice substantially in the following form:
NOTICE
You may receive a form from the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney requesting information under oath about you, your employment, and your assets, liabilities, income, and expenses. You do not have to complete and return that form, but if you fail to do so within the time allowed, you may be summoned to appear and undergo an examination under oath before a judge or examiner regarding those matters. If you fully complete and return the completed Fact Information Sheet within the time allowed, you will not be subject to discovery in aid of enforcement for at least one year from the entry of the judgment against you, unless the judgment creditor has been granted leave of court for good cause shown.
(2) Request by Judgment Creditor. — Subject to section (c) of this Rule, no earlier than 10 days after entry of a money judgment, a judgment creditor may obtain discovery in aid of enforcement of a money judgment against an individual by sending to the judgment debtor a Fact Information Sheet substantially in the form approved by the State Court Administrator. The judgment creditor may not modify the approved form to request additional information, but may delete from the form categories of information sought. The Fact Information Sheet shall include a request that the judgment debtor complete the document and return the completed document to the judgment creditor at the address stated in the Form no later than 30 days after the date the form was mailed or otherwise delivered to the judgment debtor.
(b) Fact Information Sheet. —
(1) Content. — The Fact Information Sheet may elicit information pertaining to the income, expenses, assets, and liabilities of the judgment debtor, shall be under oath, and shall include:
(A) An advisement that: (i) the judgment debtor is not required to complete and return the form, but if the debtor fails to do so within the time specified, the debtor may be summoned to appear and undergo an examination before a judge or examiner regarding the debtor’s income, expenses, assets, and liabilities; and (ii) if the judgment debtor fully completes and returns the completed Fact Information Sheet within the time allowed, the debtor will not be subject to discovery in aid of enforcement for at least one year from the entry of the judgment against the debtor unless the judgment creditor has been granted leave of court for good cause shown; and
(B) Information about web-based and in-person resources available to assist self-represented judgment debtors with completion of the Fact Information Sheet and other post-judgment matters.
(2) Posting. — The form and content of the Fact Information Sheet approved by the State Court Administrator shall be posted on the Judiciary website.
(3) If the form requests, and the judgment debtor supplies, the judgment debtor’s Social Security Number, financial account information, or tax return copies, the judgment creditor shall keep that information confidential and not disclose it to any other person except to the extent necessary to pursue collection efforts authorized by law to collect the judgment or any other judgment against the same individual owed to that judgment creditor.
(c) Other discovery in aid of enforcement. — If a judgment debtor who is an individual fully completes a Fact Information Sheet and transmits the completed document to the judgment creditor within the time specified in the Fact Information Sheet, the judgment creditor may not obtain discovery in aid of enforcement by any method listed in Rule 2-633 (a) unless:
(1) at least one year has elapsed after entry of the judgment, or
(2) if less than one year has elapsed, the judgment creditor, for good cause shown, has been granted leave of court to obtain the discovery.
Added June 29, 2020, effective August 1, 2020.
Rule 2-634 gives judgment creditors a lighter-weight alternative to a formal examination: the Fact Information Sheet. When a court enters a money judgment against an individual, the clerk sends the debtor a notice explaining that the creditor may request sworn financial information, that answering isn't mandatory, but that ignoring the request can lead to a summons for examination before a judge or examiner. The notice also tells the debtor the payoff for cooperating: complete and return the Fact Information Sheet on time, and the debtor is shielded from other discovery in aid of enforcement for at least a year, unless the court grants the creditor leave for good cause.
No earlier than ten days after entry of judgment, the creditor can send the debtor a Fact Information Sheet in the form the State Court Administrator has approved. The creditor can trim categories of information from the approved form but can't add new ones. The debtor gets 30 days from mailing or delivery to complete and return it. The form itself has to be under oath, cover income, expenses, assets, and liabilities, carry the same advisement about the debtor's options and the one-year protection, and point self-represented debtors toward help with the process. If the form asks for — and the debtor provides — a Social Security number, financial account information, or tax returns, the creditor has to keep that information confidential and use it only to pursue collection.
The payoff is real: if the debtor fully completes the Fact Information Sheet and returns it on time, the creditor can't use the other discovery methods in Rule 2-633(a) unless a year has passed since the judgment, or the creditor shows good cause for earlier discovery and gets the court's leave.