The Collection Process for Savvy Small Businesses

The Collection Process for Savvy Small Businesses

You’ve won a judgment. Now, how do you collect your money? QuickBooks tells you that collection agencies recover $44.6 billion in debt annually. The April 2019 Collection Industry News reports on the best ways to collect a judgment. You have to wait until the debtor exhausts his appeals or until the appeal period on the judgment lapses. The Collection Industry News advises you to put a lien on the defendant’s real property so t, your debt is not unsecured if the debtor files for bankruptcy. You simply record your judgment in the county courthouse. Placing a lien on his or her real estate makes the debtor find a way to pay you. The debtor cannot sell the property without paying you in full.

Ways to Locate the Defendant
You can locate the debtor from information on his credit application, such as, employer, bank, credit references, or the name of a living relative. You can often locate friends, relatives, or neighbors by posing as a friend. Phone books and online listings may be a source of additional information. The post office may give you a forwarding address. Search engines sometimes get information from motor vehicle departments, utility companies, and voter registration information. Credit bureaus are a source of additional information about previous addresses and employers.

Ways to Locate Assets
One of the best ways you can locate assets and learn a lot about your debtors is to go through their trash. If that doesn’t appeal to you, you can hire a company that does nothing but locate and seize assets. Family and friends will tell you about your debtor’s hobbies, his coin collections, his contributions to charities and church, or about the nice vehicle he recently gave to his son. Let the debtor know that he or she will not be free until your debt is paid without breaking any debt collection laws.

Renew the Judgment
You can renew the judgment on your customer’s credit report for up to 11 years. Financial conditions can change overnight. While your debtor is on unemployment is not the best time to collect your money, but a month after he or she starts a new job might be the best time to collect on your judgment. You can let the defendant know that you’re serious about collecting on your debt or judgment. You can encourage your customer to make payment arrangements rather than spend money on his hobbies.

Your Customer Files a Bankruptcy Petition
You can turn to our Massachusetts debt collection attorney if a sudden breach of contract threatens your small business. If one of your largest customers suddenly files for bankruptcy, it only looks like you are not going to get paid. Bankruptcy trustees see small businesses like yours in financial crisis every day when all they really need is a good attorney to file a bankruptcy litigation lawsuit. A bankruptcy litigation lawsuit can help you recover your assets and prosper. You wonder how you are going to operate while you’re not getting paid. Rather than lose your substantial investment in machinery, computer equipment, trucks, or cars leased to your customer, let our Massachusetts commercial collection lawyer or a litigation funding service evaluate your claim. Lawyers who provide both services have decades of experience in civil litigation and can tell you if you yours is a case they can win.

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
In Chapter 11 bankruptcy, your customer hopes to liquidate some of his assets and reorganize his business. Your customer would like to renegotiate the terms of his leases. He’d like to reduce his monthly payments. Maybe upon liquidation of his nonexempt assets, you’ll receive a lump sum payment to reduce the balance your creditor owes you on his loans.

Private Investigators
A private investigator can identify and locate assets in a few hours. Private investigators have access to software that is not available to the general public. They can compile reports instantly on anyone who sells goods or services. Private investigators inexpensively locate defendant’s assets to help collect past due child support.

Private Investigators Locate Assets
Private investigators use motor vehicle data, the owner’s account number with the lien holder, and his or her insurance policy information. Private investigators access a recreational vehicle, boat, and trailer registrations. They can find flight plans and pilot licenses. Private investigators can locate cars, trucks, and motorcycles by their license plate numbers, vehicle identification numbers, or physical addresses on the highway, in parking lots, at gas stations, and with GPS devices. Plotting the positions of the subject’s vehicles gives you a map of where he or she works, who he or she associates with, and where they spend their money.

Myths About Credit Collection
The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals offers comprehensive guidelines and compliance classes for all professionals who wish to legally collect their own money from their delinquent customers. The average collection agency charges a fee for their services, but far better educated Boston commercial collections lawyers accept debt collection cases on a contingency basis.

Your uncollected debts can be an asset. Working on a contingency basis, our Boston, Massachusetts, lawyer can file in small claims court. They’ll let your slow paying customers know that they’ll collect their past due balances plus interest and legal fees if you’re not immediately paid. You can decide whether or not to let your customer negotiate a payment plan. Our Massachusetts debt collection attorney can collect money from your debtors anywhere in the United States if he or she relocated or Boston is not your client’s corporate headquarters.

Goldberg and Oriel
Call our Massachusetts commercial collections attorneys with over 50 years of experience collecting money for large and small businesses and individuals for a free consultation. Our attorneys have access to all the services of the private investigator’s networks and work with a network of other business attorneys in all 50 states. They enjoy mentoring new business owners and offer sage advice for changes to your customer service, credit, and debt limit policies. Our debt collection attorneys will bring you peace of mind while they preserve your rights.