Tool 07 · Recovery · New
State Recovery Law Map
Your recovery rate is not a single number. It changes every time a loan crosses a state line. Click any state to see whether you can repossess without a court, whether you must send a right-to-cure notice first, whether you can pursue the deficiency, and whether you can garnish wages to collect it. The four levers that decide how much of a defaulted loan you actually get back.
Recovery law by state
Click a tile
Recovery watchlist · most restrictive states
Sorted by recovery score
| State |
Self-help |
Right to cure |
Deficiency |
Wage garnish |
Score |
Tier |
How the recovery score is built. Each state earns points across four recovery levers: self-help repossession permitted under UCC §9-609 (35 pts), no mandatory pre-repossession right-to-cure notice (20 pts), deficiency judgment available after sale (20 pts), and wage garnishment available to collect that deficiency (25 pts). 100 is a clean, fast, low-cost recovery environment. Lower scores mean more court time, more notice, or no way to collect the shortfall.
Notable rules baked in. Louisiana is the only state with no self-help repossession, recovery runs through judicial executory process. Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina do not permit wage garnishment for most consumer debt, so a deficiency judgment is far harder to actually collect. Roughly twenty states (largely Uniform Consumer Credit Code states plus California's Rees-Levering Act) require a pre-repossession notice and right to cure before you can take the collateral. Wisconsin restricts deficiency judgments on smaller-balance consumer loans.
Not legal advice. Statutes change and facility-specific terms control. This map is a directional planning tool for sizing recovery exposure across a multi-state book, confirm any specific repossession or collection action with licensed counsel in the relevant state. Built for analytical use.