We encourage our clients to turn their judgment collections over to us for a number of reasons. The first reason is found in all the tools available to our agency. Yet not every tool is appropriate for every circumstance because the strategies for judgment collection vary from case to case.
Has your organization attempted to collect judgments in the past? If so, have those tasked with the job found it difficult to figure out the best strategies? That is normal, as each case is different. Indeed, the details of a case determine the best strategies for pursuing it.
Collecting Can Be Frustrating
We get the fact that trying to collect on outstanding judgments can be frustrating. Someone who does not work in collections full time does not necessarily understand all the ins and outs of doing it successfully.
We often find this to be the case when clients have previously tried to locate a debtor’s assets. One hopes that a debtor will voluntarily disclose all their assets following a judgment being entered against them. But that rarely happens in the cases we pursue.
Debtors tend to be particularly good at hiding assets. Even when asked to disclose what they own, some will be less than forthcoming. It is our job to find those assets, even when a debtor is trying their utmost to prevent it.
When Skip Tracing Is Necessary
Identifying and locating debtor assets can be frustrating even under the best of circumstances. But when a debtor decides to skip town and leave no forwarding information, minor frustrations become major. Here at Judgment Collectors, our staff is highly skilled at skip-tracing.
What is skip tracing? In simple terms, it is the process of locating people who have left town. We have a number of strategies for doing so. For instance, we can investigate a whole host of public records, including:
- property transactions
- tax records
- credit reports
- criminal arrest records
- local court records.
Digging into publicly available records is just the start. We can also utilize social media and other online tools to figure out where people are. Skip tracing is part science, part experience, and part art form.
The point of mentioning this is to say that you may not have the ability in-house to conduct thorough skip-tracing. And if this is the case, all your debtors need to do to avoid paying is leave town. They just wait you out until the statutes of limitation on their judgments erases them.
The Merits of Each Case
Asset discovery and skip tracing aside, we take a look at each case based on its own merits. We cannot speak for other judgment collection agencies, but we can say that we do not apply a one-size-fits-all approach to what we do.
Thinking that one size fits all is a good way to fail. We have no intention of doing that. Just so you know, we work on a contingency basis. That means we do not get paid unless we succeed. We have every motivation to employ the best strategies for judgment collection for each case rather than sticking to a static model that may or may not prove fruitful.
Perhaps your organization has always tried to collect outstanding judgments in house. We get it. You haven’t wanted to spend the money on hiring a judgment collection agency. But let us put your mind at ease. When you turn your judgments over to Judgment Collectors, you don’t pay a dime. We absorb all the costs; we pay all the bills. You pay nothing until we get your money. That is the best strategy for you.