Debt Collection

Brennans will collect money owed to you.  If you have arrived at this page you have probably reached the stage where you wish to instruct a lawyer.

Here are three items of advice:

1. Often clients have not done all they can to collect the debt without incurring legals costs. It is always worth having one more concerted effort to avoid the legal costs.

2. It may help if you put yourself in the place of the person who owes you the money by reading the article below.

3. Click here if your issue concerns Lending money to friends and family.

Debt-where is thy sting?

As you struggle to manage your personal credit crunch by cravenly avoiding your own creditors while doggedly and indignantly pursuing your debtors, there are a few rules to the game that you should know about.

There are four rules to being a successful debtor:

1. Admit nothing, especially not that you owe any money or that you are completely satisfied with the goods or services.
2. If there is anything slightly wrong with the product or services tell the supplier in writing.
3. Try not to sign personal guarantees.
4. Do business in a company or entity that is not worth suing.

At some stage during your evasive activity the creditor will “spit the dummy” and instruct a lawyer. Should you surrender immediately? Well, maybe not. There are two types of lawyer’s letter. Either:
a) Pay or we shall commence action. This is called a “letter before action”. It is very precise and states that the money must be received within say, seven days of the date of the letter. The reason for this precision is not to help you pay more efficiently or make the threat more menacing, it is simply to ensure that once the deadline expires the lawyer can commence action and the costs of the proceedings will be ordered against you. A “letter before action” is like the scene in “Dirty Harry” where Clint Eastwood says, “Make my day”. The choice is blindingly simple, pay up or get sued.

b) Pay or we shall “seek our clients instructions” or “advise our client that action should be commenced” or my own personal favourite “take such action as we deem necessary without further notice to you”. This is usually a shot across the bows.

Assuming that you do not want to make payment in full, there are five possible responses to a lawyer’s letter:

1. Do nothing and hope it goes away.
Letter a) forget it
Letter b) this may work.

2. Offer to pay in installments.
Letter a) maybe.
Letter b) probably acceptable.

3. Say that you will defend any proceedings commenced; this means that you have taken it out of the “cheap and easy” debt collection class and put it into the expensive “defended action” category. If you have credible reasons this may make the creditor think twice before commencing action, especially if it combined with 4.

4. Offer to pay part of the money in “full and final settlement”. This is called “negotiating a settlement”.

5. The best response and the one most likely to stop your creditors in their tracks is to convince them that you are broke and that suing you is throwing good money after bad. This can be difficult to do as they will think that you are having them on; claims of fatal diseases, lost jobs, deceased relatives (or pets) tend to fall on deaf ears. A good tactic is the “open kimono” approach, by making a list all your assets and debts offering to pay a few dollars a month to each debtor. On the positive side the worse that your financial position is the more successful that this tactic will be.

Now that you know the four rules to be a successful debtor you will understand that as a creditor you must:
1. Get the debtor to admit that the money is owing e.g. the cheque is in the post. Get it or confirm it in writing.

2. Know legally who owes you the money.

3. Get guarantees and do credit checks.

You are now fully equipped to be in small business, during this particular turn down. Best of luck.

This is an extract from eBook "Unleasing the Dogs of Law... How to win or lose your dispute in the bad times".

(c)Paul Brennan 2009 a lawyer practising on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. 

Click here if you need to speak to a lawyer dealing with collecting debts

Click here for legal books and eBooks by Paul Brennan.  It's an easy and entertaining way to learn legal basics for time poor business owners.

Disclaimer:

The content of this site and the Law & Disorder eZine is to give you legal basics and in some instances included unashamedly to try and make you laugh.  In law it is sometimes difficult to work out what is serious and what is just for fun.  Therefore, if you plan to do anything legal, rely on your own lawyer’s advice or instruct me to look at the particular facts of your case.  Not only will I deny responsibility for the legal content but also for some of the jokes.

© Paul Brennan 2009.