The Hiday Hotline ©

October, 2003 - Jacksonville, Florida

Post Judgment Interest - Are We Bound by the Statutory Rate?

By Robert D. Hiday

     Every state has a "statutory interest rate" for judgments that sets the rate at which interest can accrue once the judgment has been entered. Most people believe that the doctrine of merger provides that a debt, after a final judgment, bears interest at the statutory rate set for judgments.  Florida law has a slightly different take however. Section 55.03(1), Florida Statutes, provides that a judgment accrues interest at the statutory rate unless a different rate is provided for in a contract or other obligation.  The Florida Supreme Court looked at this issue in Whitehurst v. Camp, 699 So. 2d 679 (Fla. 1997).  The Court held that unless the contract's terms explicitly provide for specific interest rate to apply to judgment entered on debt, the contractual interest rate terminates at judgment and postjudgment interest rate will be determined by statute.  In Whitehurst, the underlying agreement merely provided that the higher contract rate would apply until the debt was paid.  The court noted that in order "to contractually set the rate of post- judgment interest the parties must expressly provide that the agreed interest rate also applies to any judgment or decree entered on the underlying debt."  The Court concluded by saying that while "there is no dispute that the parties could have set a postjudgment interest rate in their contract or provided that the postjudgment rate would be the same as the contract rate... neither the Whitehursts nor the amicus acknowledge that the Whitehursts' "unambiguous" contract indisputably did not contain such a provision.". 

     It is therefore our opinion that if you have a note which specifically sets forth the rate of interest that any judgment will accrue, and if  that rate is lawful in Florida, that is the rate that the Court can set at the time the judgment is entered. Naturally, some Courts may not wish to proceed in this fashion, but the option does seem to be available under the above case and statute.

If you wish more information about the issues above, feel free to contact us.

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