Civil judgements are worse than bad credit if the they want them to be. They can garnish wages, take your tax returns, attach any property you have or get, etc. Even if you're broke and jobless they can haul you into court every year to file financial documents, just waiting until you have something to take. A lot of times they don't bother once they find out someone is broke they give up because of the legal costs, but in this case they're suing to make a point, not recover money.