Legal experts tend to caution against fining debt collection lawsuits without thinking through all the implications. The reason is simple: winning a lawsuit does not guarantee that a judgment creditor will get paid. Winning merely establishes the legal existence of the debt in question. Actually collecting that debt is another matter. It is what the court refers to as ‘enforcement’.
Judgment Collectors is a Salt Lake City collection agency that specializes in collecting unpaid judgments. They recommend deciding on a method of enforcement before ever filing a suit. Why? Because more often than not, the extent to which a judgment creditor is willing to go to collect determines whether payment is ever secured.
Collecting Judgments In-House
It would be interesting to know how many creditors go into their lawsuits assuming they will collect in-house upon winning. In-house collections are probably more common than most people realize. Or perhaps a better way to say it is that in-house collection efforts are pretty common. Successful collection is another matter.
Collecting a judgment can be a full-time job unto itself. The less cooperative judgment debtors are, the more difficult it is to collect from them. The thing is that debtors and their attorneys know this. They do not tend to make collection easy. They tend to do whatever they can to avoid having to pay.
Leaving Collection to an Attorney
The difficulty of collecting on a judgment is the primary reason behind the advice to leave collection to an attorney. If you were of a mind to file a debt collection lawsuit against a deadbeat customer, asking your attorney to handle collection would not be unusual. But will your attorney agree to it?
Some attorneys welcome the opportunity to collect on behalf of their clients. Others want nothing to do with collection. They have far too many responsibilities to put sufficient time and resources into hunting down debtors and their assets.
Of course, the other thing about turning debt collection over to an attorney is paying for the service. Paying a flat rate is one thing, but paying an hourly rate could mean things get very expensive over many years of trying to collect.
Bringing in a Collection Agency
The one option that does not get utilized nearly enough is bringing in a debt collection agency that specializes in judgments. Judgment Collectors is one such agency. They are particularly good at what they do because all their efforts go into judgments.
Unlike the in-house accounting team, a collection agency has the knowledge, skills, and resources to pursue deadbeats for as long as it takes. Collection agencies are very skilled at using public records to find debtors and assets. They are masters of social media. They know and utilize the fine art of skip tracing. There aren’t many in-house accounting departments that can match judgment collection agencies in their abilities to successfully collect.
Unlike attorneys, collection agencies do not have any other responsibilities tying them down. They are not distracted by other kinds of cases that have nothing to do with debt collection. Collection agencies exist for one reason and one reason only: to collect bad debts.
It Might Determine How You Proceed
Deciding on how you intend enforce could ultimately determine how you proceed with a debt collection lawsuit. The best way to go in most cases is to bring in a debt collection agency as soon as a judgment is obtained. The more quickly an agency gets involved, the easier it is for agency staff to do what they do. Your chances of actually getting paid go up as a result.