[McLovin]

Winning your small claims case and getting a writ of execution are things you could have easily done yourself. Finding assets to levy on probably would have been more difficult, but you could have tried that yourself, too. You were doing all the right things, and it made sense for you.

But the bky really changed everything. Unless you get an order from the bky court saying otherwise, your state court action is dead, and the debt owing to you is going to be legally wiped out.

Prior to the bky, you were on a relatively short and easy road, because you had the facts and the law on your side, and a relatively summary way of getting your remedy.

To cut to the chase, after the bky was filed, your road became a dead end, at least if you are analyzing this from a truly business/economic standpoint. Your only real remedy now is to pursue a non-dischargeability complaint, seeking a judgment from the Bky court finding that her debt to you is not discharged in the bky.

From an economic standpoint, the second you hire a lawyer to do that for you, you have lost. Given the amount of the debt, that makes no economic sense. That lawyer will require a $2500 retainer (minimum), and you'll never see any of that back (that's just a retainer, you'll still have to pay the $300+ hr).

You could try filing a non-dischargeability complaint yourself. You could probably figure it out by doing research on the Internet, carefully reading the rules on the Bky court website, and using as many forms as possible from that website. But unlike a small claims action, litigating a non-discharg. complaint in the Fed Bky court is not something designed to be "user friendly" to non-lawyers.

It is possible that if you just file a non-discharg. complaint, you can get the debtor to the table and reach a settlement. She will be fighting the same issue as you - she will have to pay her lawyer to defend against the complaint, so maybe she'll decide to pay that money to you instead.

(But, again, you need to be sure you actually have good legal and factual basis for a non-discharg. complaint. Based on what you have written, it does not appear that you really do. At least, not any really "clear cut" grounds).