Originally posted by dlhawes I don't know spit about Wisconsin law, but in Virginia, it would be too late to move the court to reopen the case (two years), however, the judgment would be void for lack of in-personam jurisdiction - you could either file a new case in equity to set aside the verdict (which the court will like if you say in your pleading that all you're looking for is a new trial), or just wait until someone takes legal action to collect on the judgment - which gives you an opportunity to come in and attack the judgment for lack of jurisdiction. (Any judgment order entered when the court lacks jurisdiction is void, a nullity, meaningless.)
We did look into it, and Wisconsin was only 1 year to re-open the case unless there are exceptional circumstances. Because the judgement value was below a certain threshold (it was on a debt that she didn't know about, much less owed on, and the financial institution was out of business... An imperfect storm), the court summons did not require formal service or acknowledgement of receipt. Basically, as long as it wasn't returned to the court as undelivered, it is legally considered a valid service even if it's lost in the mail.
She wasn't employed at the time, so the wage garnishment part of the judgement had no effect as well. She's now a stay at home mom, and effectively judgement proof on this issue. We aren't legally married, just together long enough that's it's easier to call her my wife, so they can't even garnish my wages if they wanted to. So we are just letting it go for now. They have 20 years to collect, and us trying to clear things up can restart the statute of limitations.