Helping Firms Collect Debts, Recover Judgments, and Locate Assets

Collection and judgment questions come into my office on a daily basis, and while there may or may not be any right answer; I can offer my insights on these topics because we handle collections and judgment recovery for various law firms throughout the US.

When asked when the right time is to hand off your AR to a third party, the first question is how many times did you attempt to contact the debtor? I suggest sending at least two letters to them requesting payment and informing them you will proceed with legal means if necessary to be paid for services rendered. Each case is different but sometimes that’s enough to get them to pay you while sparing you any further time or money and keeping your professional relationship intact. If they don’t pay you or at least make payment arrangements within a week of the second notification, it’s time to consider a possible third party. At this point this debtor is now taking time away from you and your staff chasing down payments when you need that time to dedicate to your normal business practice.

On the flip side of this, your client (now debtor) came to you because something was going on in their life personally or professionally and needed your services. Statistics show that the sooner you attempt collections, the sooner you get paid out. While the lure of letting debt sit and collect interest may be appealing, the longer you wait the less chance you have of getting paid. I cannot begin to list out all the times a good hearted attorney waited and waited to be paid, hoping that time would allow their client to get back on their feet and pay them what was owed…only to receive a bankruptcy notification or have a client who, for whatever reason, now has no physical or tangible assets or employment to pay with. Another hurdle can also be if your debtor lives in a “debtor friendly” state. It can take years to get paid on debts if you don’t aggressively pursue AR payments.

Aside from feeling bad over having to chase down payments, a majority of the firms I work with come to us because of their concern over liability, the potential of somehow getting sued by the debtor going after them or their firm, or having the debtor/debtor business negatively impact them or their firm. I’m not a lawyer so I cannot speak to any liabilities, but there are benefits to using a third party. A third party will always use their business as the “face” trying to collect the debt. All communications have the third party information on it and any funds collected are paid to the third party and then back to the end client or creditor. I have never had a debtor go back and be angry at the end client (creditor/attorney). They have choice things to say to us, but that’s part of the service – providing that shield so that debtors can get upset with us and not tarnish your name or business. We always tell the debtor upfront that we own the debt and they are not to contact the original creditor. Since we buy the debt, we take on the ownership of it and they then direct everything towards us.

That said, I would suggest an aggressive third party firm who is licensed, insured and is FCRA and GLB compliant. They should not charge you any fees at all. No set-up fees, monthly or recurring fees. Any agency worth their salt will collect on the debt on a “we only get paid if you get paid” basis. You shouldn’t have to spend any money recovering your debts. Especially if you have a really financially poor debtor, to pay an agency to collect on this debtor would be throwing good money after bad. Some unethical firms will keep billing you and not inform you that your debtor has no assets to pay with.

We have a cutting-edge technology program that allows our clients to log into our real-time secure system and see the status of their debt, view any payments made, notes about debtor’s ability to pay, and any payment plans agreed to. Transparency is key to a legitimate, and trustworthily firm. You should always have 24/7 access to your debt cases and not have to wait for anyone to return your call or simply tell you, “It’s being worked on”.

With respect to judgments, you should always use your legal ability to sue the debtor yourself unless you feel it would impact future business with the debtor or debtor business. Typically the thought of being sued by an attorney who worked for them is enough to encourage them to pay up or work out payment terms before a court date. Even if it never goes to court you can still recover the filing costs, so what is there to lose? I doubt anyone in the judicial field would fault you for trying to get paid.

80% of all judgments go uncollected.

Collectability is an interesting topic and one in which my business is built on.
Once you have a judgment there are so many more legal methods to get paid than with a normal AR debt. Plus you start earning a larger interest rate on a judgment versus collections debt. Sure a FiFa or a garnishment can be good but nationwide there are new indicators showing that only 20% of the time these tactics are successful. People are not selling real property so the FiFa is almost a last ditch effort to force payment – if they don’t quitclaim. Garnishments are being contested under every imaginable excuse and due to the economy more and more judges are siding with the debtor and ordering alternative payment plans that will not interfere with their ability to work. 9 times out of 10 the debtor will default on these alternative payment plans and you’re back at step 1.

Without going into “trade secrets” on a public forum, there are legally aggressive methods to recover and enforce judgments in a short timeframe while being FRCA and GLB compliant. If the debtor is a business, the timeframe is even shorter. It’s all about being able to discover not only the surface level assets, but the hard-to-find and hidden assets as well. When recovering a judgment you need to look nation-wide not just in the debtor’s backyard. For example, you may find a car that’s paid off at his house but it’s expensive and time consuming to seize a car just to sell it for pennies on the dollar on the courthouse steps where you’re not likely to recover the full amount of your judgment. What you want is the seven-figure CD sitting at the little known brokerage in another state that the debtor has under an alias. Businesses offer even more recovery options.

Judgments also allow for all court-related costs to be added to the judgment principle and recovered. Minus some time and paperwork, you truly have nothing to lose by escalating a collection to a judgment.

Another plus to judgments is that they are typically good for 5-12 years depending on which state your debtor lives in. Unlike AR debt, the statue of limitations is unlikely to run out so long as the judgment is renewed. In cases where your debtor is truly without assets to pay, this affords enough time to wait until they get on their feet. While you wait you earn interest.

Enforcing judgments through a licensed and insured third party also extends the same benefits as enforcing AR debts. The judgment recovery firm does all the enforcement and investigative work, handles all communications with the debtor, and works it until the satisfaction of judgment can be filed. Judgment recovery firms will also work on a no cost to you basis, so if they can’t recover the judgment they don’t get paid. You shouldn’t have to spend your firm’s time or money recovering and enforcing judgments.

For debt collection or judgment recovery services at no cost, please visit our website at http://www.dedicatedsolutionsgroup.com/

What would you do if you had ALL THE MONEY owed to you?

What would you do if you had ALL THE MONEY owed to you?

Seems like a simple question and yet most people do not ask themselves this question. Why? Because the economy has most people believing that if someone or some business had the money to pay them then they would already be paid.

Not true!

The economy has only made people hold onto their cash and assets tighter than ever! Time also does not help. If a debt is new then you are more likely to be on the mind of your debtor. However as time goes by debtors will lose sight of your debt and often hope that you have as well.

Some people actually try and wait out the time period for debt to expire. All states have different time periods inwhich debt expires however, very few people know that you can renew debts, especially court judgments. Renewing a court judgment can make your judgment good for another 7 to 12 years depending on the state.

So why wait? Well depending on your situation it may not be adviseable to wait at all. However in some cases the longer you wait the better off your debtor may be, AND you incur interest while you wait so in the end you may actually end up with more than you thought.

Now the recovery of debts is another issue to addressed in a future post. It is not adviseable for people who are trained and certified to attempt debt recovery themselves. There are many legal pitfalls to avoid and FRCA and GLB laws that must be strictly adhered to or you could find yourself in legal hot water with some pretty heafty fines to pay.

If you find yourself in need of debt recovery services, please contact us and let us explain how we can recover your debt at no cost to you. We are fully licensed and insured.

http://www.DedicatedSolutionsGroup.com