Due Process and Collections Litigation At some point, most businesses, especially those involved in interstate or international transactions, are going to have to sue someone to collect an overdue bill. When dealing with a debtor that resides or does business primarily in another state, one critical issue to consider will be: can I sue the […]
Enforcement of Judgment – How to Collect the Judgment You Won
The following post was found on the Mendocino Courts website. The original can be accessed here: http://www.courts.ca.gov/partners/documents/enforcement_of_judgment_how_to_collect.doc The information contained herein only applies in the State of California. Additional or different forms and procedures may apply depending on the County. The local rules of the County Superior Court should be checked for applicable rules. Mendocino […]
Selling a Debtor’s Property
A Dramatic and Effective Remedy – That Should Rarely Be Used Usually, as soon as a judgment is entered against an individual, the first question a creditor asks is, “Can I force her to sell her house?” If your judgment debtor owns property, it is by far the most tempting target for enforcement, especially if […]
Convenience Fees and Collection Costs
Do Your Standard Practices Violate the FDCPA? It’s such a standard business practice we generally don’t think twice about it anymore: when making a payment, if the payer wishes to use a credit card or check-by-phone, she can expect to be charged a “convenience fee”. These fees can be a flat amount, or calculated as […]
Why John Oliver Is Wrong About Debt Collection
Debt Buyers and Bad Actors Should Not Define an Industry More and more Americans turn to comedy shows for news in addition to entertainment. These shows make plenty of jokes, but they also claim to present facts, presumably accurate, in a journalistic way. While not always a problem, Last Week Tonight’s recent episode on […]
Collecting From The Spouse Of Your Judgment Debtor
You filed suit and obtained a Judgment against a debtor and afterwards you learn the Judgment debtor is married. Can you go after assets and income held in the name of the Judgment debtor’s spouse? Whether or not that is possible will largely depend upon the State in which the debtor and spouse reside. However, […]
Defalcation – It can happen to you!
Defalcation-misappropriation of money or funds held by an official, trustee, or other fiduciary. You or your collection agency hired an attorney to collect a bad debt and the good news is that job was accomplished. However, the bad news is you didn’t know about it and, worse, you didn’t receive your share of the proceeds of the collection. First, I have to point out this is […]
8 Questions to Ask Your Debt Collection Lawyer
Over the past four decades, I’ve received hundreds of letters or emails from lawyers I’ve assigned to collection cases (after a few days or a week handling a case) to tell me, “The debtor isn’t responding to our demands for payment. Do you want to send us costs to begin a lawsuit?” However, precious little […]
That’s Not Fair! Accepting International Legal Differences
A Chinese client of ours placed an account with us for collection. On contacting the company who bought their product we were referred to their lawyer. When we contacted the lawyer he explained that his client had an initial offset to the $650,000 debt because of approximately $30,000.00 worth of defective goods. Beyond that, opposing […]
Judgment Collection: Taking It All Back
The Challenge of Judgment Collection Debtors can avoid a creditor for a long time. Repeated, but failed, promises to pay, increasingly unbelievable excuses, and simply ignoring the creditor are all tactics debtors employ to delay collection. It can be remarkably frustrating. But, if a creditor is persistent, vindication will come in the form of a […]