Regrettably, a friend we loaned a substantial amount of money (in
excess of 50K) has turned out to be less than honorable.

We now find ourselves with little choice but to take necessary actions
to protect/recover what money we can from this loan. We have promisory
notes but did not secure them against assets. We live in CO as does
our ex-friend (although he and his wife have put his home up for
sale).

What are the best resources on the Internet to:
1) help ID/locate available assests of this individual that do not
already have liens against them (e.g. home, auto, business,
investments, bank accounts, etc). Because this was a friendship loan,
we didn't have the smarts to get his SS# (suggestions how how to get
it?)

2) to help defray legal costs, what efforts can we do ourselves, from
on-line resources and otherwise, to begin this whole process (e.g.
necessary forms to file, education on how best to file motions, obtain
judgments, etc)

Thx. in advance for any help you can provide.

For $50,000 you need to hie an attorney ASAP.

Yeah, hire an attorney ASAP.  Try to get a lein on theproperty they
are selling. If there are already liens on the property they own, you
can probably find thin my going to the county clerk's office or the
state (or you attorney could do it on Lexis).

Most liens on real property (real estate0 are filed with the county
clerk's office in thecounty where the property is located.  All other
propoerty is on record with the state.

Keep in mind the property will only be listed if their is a lein on
the property.  (It is filed because that is how one perfect a lein. 
it is not enough to get a lein on property, one must put the world on
notice that there is a lien on the property in order to gain priority
in receiving liquidation proceeds.

The above information is not quite accurate.  The county recorder or
county assessor will have a record of any real estate owned.  If you
have an idea of where they own property, it may be possible to search
for it online, for example on a site such as this from Arapahoe
Ccounty:
http://www.co.arapahoe.co.us/Apps/LegalDocuments/default.aspx

Not all sites may allow a search just by name, and some counties may
not have the information online.

Search with:  colorado county-name assessor OR recorder

Good luck.  But get a lawyer!

Sorry to hear about your situation, I had something similar happen to
my mother two years ago (for big money as well).  So, I'll try to help
you based on what I learned taking care of the investigation.

(1) I can tell you how to get his SS#.  I don't want to post it here
for fear of abuse, however.  Email me for more info.  My source is a
legitimate investigative search company and they do ask you what you
need the info for.  They have a number of different searches, from
real property searches to complete dossiers (which include criminal
records, addresses for the last 15 years, etc.).  Anyway I highly
recommend this company, it took me a while to find one that could give
me what I needed.  I tried a few others first but they just gave me
bullsh*t and took my money.

To really locate hidden assets, you may want to hire a private
investigator.  I didn't use one but I remember hearing a rate far less
expensive than I thought.  Worth looking into.

(2) You definitely need to hire an attorney.  If you find out stuff
about your friend that you can use as leverage outside of court, then
it won't cost too much.  The initial consultation should be free. 
Document preparation (security agreements, etc) and filing costs in
the hundreds for each document.  If you have to litigate, then it will
start costing you much more.

To all,

Thanks so much for you answers. There very helpful. The two take always are:
1) Take action quickly.
2) Hire an attorney.

P.S. plum209-ga, Thanks for offering addt. info. It would really help
to know how to contact the investigative research firm mentions. Your
comment didn't' have an email link. How can I get your email to
correspond further? My all purpose one is info@totalbalance.us (let's
hope by give this out I don't start getting a lot of spam!)

Sorry, but postings to Google Answers that include email addresses
will usually be deleted.  All correspondence must be in the form of
comments.