My girlfriend just got a judgement against someone who was supposed to install flooring in our home and ghosted us after taking an $1100 check.  

This happened just about a year ago and we tried to work with him until the fall.  She just received notice that the court has granted a judgement (he first refused to be served and then failed to show in court) and now we have to collect.  I know it's not a big sum and we spent over $100K renovating the house.  It's the principle of the thing.

She is trying to get a copy of the back side of the check from her bank.  If the account number is there and the account is still open the court will lien the account and take the money/  My guess though is that that account is either empty or closed.

Does anybody have any experience or suggestions that might help?

Just a place to start research, but i has some interactions with someone not in nj that won like you did for something like $3k. It wasn’t in nj, but similar relief may be possible here. But the guy has no accessible accounts but did own multiple businesses. He was able to have the office furniture and fixtures seized and auctioned off. It was mostly out of spite and he spent about $5k getting his $3k, but about $25,000 of stuff was auctioned off to get him that $3k. It’s been quite a while and I’m fuzzy on the details, but I’d start with whatever you can put a lien on. 

I collected money for a living in my 20’s and early 30’s.  Don’t bother youll never get it off a deadbeat. My collections were more of the violent type if you need any help. Let me know