815.04.Execution, when issued.

On a judgment of a court of record perfected under s. 806.06, or any other court’s judgment entered in the judgment and lien docket of a court of record, execution may issue at any time within 5 years after the judgment was rendered, without needing special court permission. Once an execution has issued and come back unsatisfied, in whole or in part, further executions may issue at any time on the judgment creditor’s application.

After that 5-year window closes, or if someone other than the judgment creditor wants execution, the court must grant leave, exercising its discretion, and only after prior notice to the judgment debtor, served like a summons. If the debtor is absent or lives out of state, notice can go by a class 3 notice under ch. 985, or however the court directs. The application itself has to be a petition, from the judgment creditor or an assignee, stating that the judgment (or part of it) remains unpaid and that the petitioner is the bona fide owner of it for value.

There’s a hard outer limit regardless of leave of court: no execution may issue, and no proceeding may be commenced, on any judgment more than 20 years after it was rendered.

Subsection (2) adds a separate, practical mechanism. Once the sheriff holds an execution against property, anyone who owes the judgment debtor money can pay the sheriff directly — their non-exempt debt, or as much as is needed to satisfy the execution — and the sheriff’s receipt fully discharges that debt to the extent paid.