How to renew a California judgment before it expires

Filing an application for renewal (EJ-190) extends enforceability another ten years and rolls the accrued interest and allowed costs into the renewed principal, so interest then runs on the larger number.

The renewal is entered by the clerk without a hearing. You then serve notice of renewal on the debtor, who has 30 days to move to vacate it.

Do it in the last year of the window, not the last week. Clerks reject filings for small defects, and a rejection that lands after the ten-year date cannot be cured.

If any renewal was already filed, the clock runs from that renewal instead of the original entry.

Ten percent simple interest under Code Civ. Proc. § 685.010 roughly doubles a judgment over ten years. A $20,000 judgment left alone is worth about $40,000 at year ten, and renewal preserves all of it.

Once the judgment expires, the debt still exists in principle but no court will enforce it. That is the whole loss.

An abstract of judgment (EJ-001) recorded with the county recorder creates a lien on real property the debtor owns in that county. Many judgments get paid at escrow years later, without a single garnishment.