If you’ve been sued and lost, the creditor will have a judgment against you. The next step is for that creditor to seize and sell your assets to pay down the debt. To do that, the creditor needs help from the sheriff to tag or mark the assets and conduct a public sale. This is what’s known as a sheriff’s levy, and it creates a lien. If things have gone this far, a bankruptcy lawyer is not far off.

Once the sheriff has levied on property, he has two choices: levy and leave or levy and take. Levy and leave allows the property to stay where it is, marked so it can’t be moved or destroyed, so that a sale or seizure may occur at a later date. Levy and take means that the sheriff will haul the assets off for safekeeping pending a public auction. Either way the judgment debtor will need to take immediate action to prevent the property from being sold and lost forever.