815.05.Execution, how issued; contents.

Issuance has to follow set formalities. The execution must be sealed with the court’s seal, signed by the clerk of circuit court where the judgment (or a certified copy, or a municipal judge’s transcript) is filed, directed to the sheriff (or, subject to a court-appointed substitute, the coroner if the sheriff is a party or interested), and countersigned by the judgment owner or the owner’s attorney. It must intelligibly identify the court, the county where the judgment is filed, the parties’ names, the judgment amount if it’s for money, the amount still due, and when it was entered in the judgment and lien docket.

What the execution has to direct the officer to do changes with its type. A property execution requires the officer to satisfy the judgment first out of the debtor’s personal property, and only if that’s insufficient out of real property the debtor owned on or after the judgment’s docketing date. Where real estate was attached, the execution can also direct a sale of the debtor’s interest in that property as of the time of attachment or later. An execution to enforce a lien on specific property reaches only the debtor’s interest in that property as of when the lien attached, and execution can reach property held by a personal representative, heir, devisee, legatee, tenant, or trustee.

Execution against the person directs the officer to arrest the judgment debtor and commit them to the county jail until they pay the judgment or are discharged according to law. Execution for delivery of property directs the officer to hand over specifically described property to the party entitled to it, lets the officer satisfy any accompanying costs, damages, rents, or profits out of the debtor’s personal property (or, if delivery isn’t possible and personal property falls short, out of real property owned on or after the docketing date), and must state the property’s value. A related rule for replevin judgments against a principal and the principal’s sureties keeps the surety’s property off-limits unless the principal’s own property proves insufficient.

If a judgment isn’t all due yet, execution can issue just for the installments already due, directing the sheriff to collect that amount with interest and costs; the judgment stays as security for what’s still to come, and further executions can issue as later installments mature. And every execution on a money judgment must direct collection of interest at 1 percent above the prime rate reported by the Federal Reserve, measured as of a date tied to when the judgment was entered, running from entry until the judgment is paid, except as s. 807.01 (4) provides.