How JudgmentVault calculates
The method behind every value and date JudgmentVault shows. Each state's rules, and the statute behind each one, are on that state's methodology page.
State rules
The method
One engine behind every number
Every figure JudgmentVault shows, on a free calculator or in a tracked judgment, comes from the same calculation engine. There is no second, simplified version for the website, so the free tools and the product cannot disagree.
The engine has two parts. The value engine works out what a judgment is worth on a date you choose: the balance, the interest accrued since the last compounding date, a daily interest figure, and an itemized history of every anniversary, payment and credit. The clocks engine works out the dates that keep a judgment enforceable: when it goes dormant, the deadline to revive it, and when each county lien ends.
Exact to the cent
Money is kept in whole cents and interest rates as exact decimals. The engine never uses floating-point arithmetic, which is what causes the one-cent drift common in spreadsheet calculators. Interest is rounded to the cent only when it is posted, and each state page says when that is.
Calendar dates, chosen by you
Dates are calendar dates with no time zone, so a result never shifts because of where or when it is viewed. The engine never reads today's date on its own: every result is "good through" a date that is part of the input.
Checked against worked examples
Each rule is tested against a set of worked examples whose expected answers were computed independently with exact arithmetic, never by the engine being tested. Every change to the engine runs the full set, and a single wrong cent or day stops the change from shipping.
Each state's rules, kept separate
The engine itself holds no state's law. Each state's rate, compounding, dormancy and lien rules live in a separate rule module that names the statute behind each rule, and each state has its own worked examples. A state is offered only after its examples pass.
Where the statute does not settle a question, such as how interest is counted between compounding dates, the engine follows a stated rule and the state page marks it as pending legal review.