In the face of today's changing economic climate, recognizing and managing future risks becomes a priority for credit professionals. Stevens & Ricci business credit solutions can provide a business with products and services to enhance cash flow. For corporate solutions, see our Resource Center. For third party collection services, see our section on Commercial Debt Recovery.

West Virginia Collection Attorneys and West Virginia Lawyers for Business Debt Recovery

August 16th, 2011
West Virginia Debt Collection Attorneys
If you aren’t happy with the results that the typical collection agency in Charleston, West Virginia is providing, consider switching to a debt collection attorney. If your agency is like most, they’re only providing you with about a 28% recovery rate. In comparison, the corporate debt recovery firm of Stevens and Ricci delivers a 72% success rate, and we can collect on most accounts within 45 days. Give our offices near Charleston, WV a call today to start the collection process.
Charleston, West Virginia Collection Attorneys Succeed Where Others Fail
Don’t let your collection agency’s opinion stop you from recovering debts that they failed to collect. In many cases, the Stevens and Ricci firm can take advantage of critical opportunities that your collection agency missed. The typical collection agency will give up when they don’t get a positive response to their phone calls and letters. In contrast, the business collection lawyers at Stevens and Ricci will take steps to track down your debtors for face-to-face negotiations when necessary. Our national support network includes the very best collection lawyers and private investigators from each state in the Union. Don’t let your debtors continue to hide! By combining the collections and legal functions into a single team, the Stevens and Ricci group has created the most effective corporate debt recovery strategy possible. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to let us represent your interests when it comes to commercial claims.
Be Careful When Accepting Checks in West Virginia
If you really need the positive cash flow that receiving payments on outstanding debts can create, let the Stevens and Ricci firm handle this for you! By doing so, you’ll eliminate the possibility of receiving a bad check as payment. Because many of your delinquent debtors may be having their own cash flow problems, this can easily happen by accident. If your debtor tells you upfront that it will be awhile before they can make their payment and offers a post-dated check, don’t take it. Accepting a future-dated check can mean that you have no legal remedy when the check bounces. Look out for checks with low numbers or no numbers at all. The checking account is probably brand new, and most bad checks are written on accounts that are less than a year old. If you do receive a check that bounces, hold onto it until the writer reimburses you in full for the face value of the check and any bad check fees that you incurred. Although you can only charge a $15 service fee in West Virginia on a bad check, one written for more than $500 is considered a felony. While you may not want to take a customer to criminal court, it is a powerful incentive for repayment.
Charleston, West Virginia Debt Collection Attorneys vs. Collection Agencies
In addition to protecting your company from bad checks, experienced business collection attorneys in West Virginia can add even more value to your collection process. Not only does the Stevens and Ricci firm outperform the standard collection agency every time, but we also have the authority and the knowledge to use recovery methods that aren’t available to an agency. Unlike the typical collection agent who works strictly from their office, our team of private investigators and corporate debt collection attorneys go out into the field to meet directly with your debtors and their representatives. If your debtor hires a legal team, it can stop a collection agency immediately. However, the Stevens and Ricci firm finds this development encouraging. We will actively seek out their attorney for more advanced negotiation meetings. Don’t miss your chance to use the most effective corporate debt recovery process available to its full advantage!
Getting Creative in Charleston, WV
At Stevens and Ricci, we will take unconventional measures to collect your commercial debts when needed. Our private investigators frequently visit local courthouses to examine legal documents or prepare for collecting a judgment. We may decide to talk to your debtor’s other business partners including their bank, their vendors, or their suppliers. If your debtor likes to hide from our process server, they will dress up as a delivery person to get past the closed door. When all else fails, our debt collection lawyers often work with the debtor’s legal team to create billable time. This new debt can restart the clock and serve as a new reason to settle a debt.
Aggressive Payment Plans in Charleston, West Virginia
In uncertain economic times, the collection industry usually sees more requests for extended payments than payments in full. While we are always willing to work with your debtors, this situation can lead to potential defaults down the road if they can’t maintain a payment schedule. Our business collection attorneys can turn this potential problem into a great opportunity. We will draft an aggressive payment plan to increase your chance of regular payments and increase your default security.
Your collection agency has probably stuck with verbal agreements when negotiating a payment plan with your debtors in the past. We never make this mistake. To fully protect your interests, our debt collection lawyers never miss a chance to formalize the extended payment terms.
To start, we add a Consent Judgment to the payment agreement. This handy little legal clause allows us to file for an immediate and automatic judgment against your past due debtor when they miss their first payment. You won’t have to go to court, pay any additional fees, or waste any time. By using Consent Judgments in our payment agreements, we have increased our recovery rates by 40%.
As a second step, we convince your debtor to sign a Personal Guaranty clause to take personal responsibility for the debt. If the corporation fails, you have no recourse without this signed statement. In most cases, your debtor will readily agree in return for the extended payment terms. `
As a final addition to the payment plan, we calculate a 1.5% per month interest rate. The debtors usually agree to this amount without any further negotiations. As a bonus to our clients, this interest usually pays for the majority of the collection costs. With this feature, you can take advantage of the best collection methods in the industry at a much lower cost than the less effective collection agencies.

West Virginia Debt Collection Attorneys

If you aren’t happy with the results that the typical collection agency in Charleston, West Virginia is providing, consider switching to a debt collection attorney. If your agency is like most, they’re only providing you with about a 28% recovery rate. In comparison, the corporate debt recovery firm of Stevens and Ricci delivers a 72% success rate, and we can collect on most accounts within 45 days. Give our offices near Charleston, WV a call today to start the collection process.

Charleston, West Virginia Collection Attorneys Succeed Where Others Fail

Don’t let your collection agency’s opinion stop you from recovering debts that they failed to collect. In many cases, the Stevens and Ricci firm can take advantage of critical opportunities that your collection agency missed. The typical collection agency will give up when they don’t get a positive response to their phone calls and letters. In contrast, the business collection lawyers at Stevens and Ricci will take steps to track down your debtors for face-to-face negotiations when necessary. Our national support network includes the very best collection lawyers and private investigators from each state in the Union. Don’t let your debtors continue to hide! By combining the collections and legal functions into a single team, the Stevens and Ricci group has created the most effective corporate debt recovery strategy possible. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to let us represent your interests when it comes to commercial claims. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Debt Collection Attorneys

Utah Collection Attorneys and Utah Lawyers for Business Debt Recovery

August 10th, 2011
Utah Debt Collection Attorneys
If you’ve had less than optimal results from the collection agencies in Utah, consider using a corporate debt collection attorney instead. The commercial debt recovery team at the Stevens and Ricci firm can deliver a 72% success rate compared to the much lower 28% figure offered by a standard collection agency. In most cases, we can collect your debts faster, too; our average collection timeframe is 30 to 45 days. If your business is located near Layton, Utah or Murray, Utah, give us a call today to start the commercial debt collection process.
Salt Lake City, UT Collection Lawyers Succeed Where Others Fail
A business debt recovery attorney succeeds where a collection agent fails because their method misses critical opportunities. The collection agent will make a few phone calls, but will give up sooner or later when there is no positive response. A collection attorney with the Stevens and Ricci firm will take the extra steps to track down your debtor to negotiate payments. We have formed a national support network for our collection process that includes the best private investigators and debt collection attorneys in every state across the nation. If your debtor is trying to avoid paying their debts, there will be no place to hide from our team. Although our services are strictly on the pre-litigation side of the collection game, just the hint of legal action is usually enough to get the payment process started. After all, a call from an actual attorney always carries more weight than one from a mere collection agent. To make sure that we never miss a critical opportunity, the Stevens and Ricci firm has combined the best minds in the legal and collection worlds into one group. Don’t miss your opportunity to take advantage of the collection services offered by Stevens and Ricci in the Tooele, Utah or Layton, Utah areas.
Watch Out for Bad Checks in Utah
When accepting a check for payment in Utah, be very careful. If the check has a low number, especially below 125, it is probably written on a very new account. The vast majority of bad checks are written on accounts that are less than a year old. While there’s not much you can do about a bad check to recover your money unless the debtor is willing to pay, you can press criminal charges. In Utah, anything under $300 is considered a misdemeanor, and everything over is a felony. While you probably don’t want to take the time to go to court to press charges, the threat of doing so can often make the debtor compensate you for your loss. When anyone attempts to provide payment in order to retrieve a bounced check, never hand it over until you’ve received payment in full in the form of cash, money order, or certified check. Of course, if you use the services of the Stevens and Ricci offices in Tooele, UT or Layton, UT, you never have to worry about receiving a bad check as payment on a delinquent account. We’ll make sure that every payment is received in a secure manner before forwarding it to your receivables department.
Murray, Utah Debt Collection Attorneys vs. Collection Agencies
In addition to preventing additional costs by avoiding bad checks, using an experienced corporate debt collection attorney has numerous other benefits when compared to hiring a typical collection agency. You will not only find that our attorneys outperform a normal collection agency each and every time, but that we also have the knowledge and the authority to use recovery methods that simply aren’t available to a regular collection agent. While a mere collection agent is usually stopped by the voice mail system, a debt collection attorney can not only get in the door, but meet directly with the owners and their agents. In fact, we look forward to the day that your debtor hires their own legal counsel. Instead of stopping the collection process, this helps us move it forward.
Business Sales in Salt Lake City, Utah
Collection agencies don’t know to handle a business sale, acquisition, or merger. In fact, one of the fastest ways to get a collection agency to leave you alone is to tell them that you’ve sold your business. However, a business collection attorney has a very specific strategy reserved for this situation. Every transaction of this kind must have a buy/sell agreement that often includes a set-aside provision or a reserve allowance intended to pay unsecured creditors who hole a balance during the transfer of ownership. A collection agency would never be able to get their hands on this legal document, but our business collection attorneys can put pressure on the owners and their agents to turn a copy over for review.
Murray, Utah Case Study
In 2004, a Murray, UT materials supplier was having trouble collecting a $25,000 balance from a local soil stabilization company. They had paid for the materials, but were refusing to pay the sales tax based on two issues they were having with the supplier. There was a discrepancy in wording between the credit application and the invoices. The other issue was that there was a supposed defect in the materials themselves.
Although the Stevens and Ricci debt collection attorney tried their best, this debt went uncollected and was placed in a cold case file for later reference. Because the soil stabilization company had a strong defense, we felt it best to report it to the two major commercial credit bureaus and move on to other matters for the time being.
Just this past year, another employee from the soil stabilization company called our offices to find out why there was an entry from the Stevens and Ricci firm on their credit report. This employee did not know anything about the original matter, and they were told that the attorney would look into the matter and call them back.
After pulling the file, our debt collection attorney returned their call. After listening to a brief explanation, they requested proof from the materials company that the sales tax was paid. This was very different from 2004 when they wanted the $25,000 to serve as a discount for failing to fix the problem with the materials.
This matter was closed completely when the debtor settled the account for $20,000 in exchange for clearing the item from the stabilization company’s credit report. This old debt was settled because the collection attorney handled the matter in a professional manner.

Utah Debt Collection Attorneys

If you’ve had less than optimal results from the collection agencies in Utah, consider using a corporate debt collection attorney instead. The commercial debt recovery team at the Stevens and Ricci firm can deliver a 72% success rate compared to the much lower 28% figure offered by a standard collection agency. In most cases, we can collect your debts faster, too; our average collection timeframe is 30 to 45 days. If your business is located near Layton, Utah or Murray, Utah, give us a call today to start the commercial debt collection process.

Salt Lake City, UT Collection Lawyers Succeed Where Others Fail

A business debt recovery attorney succeeds where a collection agent fails because their method misses critical opportunities. The collection agent will make a few phone calls, but will give up sooner or later when there is no positive response. A collection attorney with the Stevens and Ricci firm will take the extra steps to track down your debtor to negotiate payments. We have formed a national support network for our collection process that includes the best private investigators and debt collection attorneys in every state across the nation. If your debtor is trying to avoid paying their debts, there will be no place to hide from our team. Although our services are strictly on the pre-litigation side of the collection game, just the hint of legal action is usually enough to get the payment process started. After all, a call from an actual attorney always carries more weight than one from a mere collection agent. To make sure that we never miss a critical opportunity, the Stevens and Ricci firm has combined the best minds in the legal and collection worlds into one group. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Debt Collection Attorneys

Oklahoma Collection Attorneys and Oklahoma Lawyers for Business Debt Recovery

August 4th, 2011
Commercial Debt Recovery in Oklahoma
If you’ve been less than impressed with the results that your Oklahoma collection agent has been providing, take advantage of the corporate debt recovery legal team at Stevens and Ricci. Our commercial debt recovery attorneys deliver an aggressive 72% recovery rate compared to the average 28% rate that most collection agencies provide. Not only will we recover more of your debt, we’ll also collect it faster. In most cases, you’ll receive payment in 45 days or less. If your company is located near Tulsa, OK or Oklahoma City, give our offices a call to start the collection process.
Collection Attorneys in Oklahoma Succeed Where Others Fail
By taking advantage of critical opportunities that the collection agency misses, we succeed where they fail. Your collection agent will make a few phone calls, but give up when they don’t receive a positive response. Our debt collection lawyers actually track down the debtor, wherever they may be, to negotiate a payment plan. Our national support network includes private investigators and collection lawyers in every state. They will leave no stone unturned when pursuing your corporate debts. Our services are strictly pre-litigation, but your debtor doesn’t know that. One hint of a lawsuit, and they will take the negotiation process seriously. By combining the collections and legal functions into one streamlined team, the Stevens and Ricci firm leaves no opportunity out of the equation. Don’t miss your opportunity to have our team represent your next commercial claim in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma or Edmond, OK.
Don’t Count on Legal Protection for Oklahoma Creditors
In Oklahoma, you must collect your debts according to the state’s strict statute of limitations. This state has some of the lowest limits seen anywhere. In many cases, you may have as little as three years to collect your money, and you never have more than five. Even a court judgment expires in Oklahoma after five years. Don’t waste another second in Tulsa, OK by trying to collect your own commercial debts or contracting with a normal collection agency. Call our Oklahoma City offices to today to take advantage of the fastest possible collection methods.
Debt Collection Attorneys in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma vs. Collection Agencies
Using an experienced legal team to collect your commercial debts provides numerous advantages in addition to saving time. Our business collection attorneys have knowledge and authority that simply isn’t available to a standard collection agency. When the typical collection agent is screened using voice mail, a debt collection attorney can gain direct access to the owner or their agent. When a debtor obtains legal counsel, a collection agent must cease all collection efforts. Our business debt recovery lawyers welcomes this development and will actively seek out the opposing counsel for further negotiations. Continue reading to learn more about how a collection attorney can help recover your debts in Edmond, OK.
Forbearance Agreements in Oklahoma City
A forbearance agreement allows the Stevens and Ricci debt collection attorney to help your debtor stay in business so that they can repay their debts. After all, if they stop making money, how will they ever pay you? We prevent other creditors from filing lawsuits against your debtor to allow them to restructure their debt. In this situation, you not only help out a valuable customer, but you’ve also escalated your payment position while avoiding the courtroom. By creating a win-win situation, your delinquent debtor may go on to be a valued customer again in the future.
Unusual Strategies in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Sometimes, the legal team at Stevens and Ricci has to use a few unique strategies to recover your commercial debts. However, we always do whatever it takes to complete the job. Our team of private investigators may investigate the debtor’s other business partners including vendors, suppliers, or financial institutions. They may examine public records or meet with the district attorney before collecting a judgment. Our process servers have to be particularly crafty at times. Desperate debtors will go to any lengths to avoid receiving legal paperwork that means the collection process has entered a more serious phase. When required, our process servers will disguise themselves as a delivery driver or other service worker. This strategy often results in an open door. In extreme cases, we can even create billable time by working with the debtor’s counsel and use this as a new reason for settlement.
Edmond, Oklahoma Case Study
It’s a growing trend in the United States for companies and individuals to claim that they no longer owe a debt because they have either sold their business, merged with another company, or been acquired by another corporate entity. In most cases, provisions will have been made to pay any creditors, but the debtor isn’t always forthcoming with this information.
One of our clients, an office supply companies in Edmond, Oklahoma, had such a problem. A local printing company, ABC Printing, owed them a total of $72,000, but refused to pay the debt. They claimed that they sold the business to XYZ Printers before our client generated or sent the invoices to ABC. During the sale process, our client was never notified of the transaction.
At this point, the average collection agency would consider the account uncollectible and close the case. However, that’s not the standard operating procedure at Stevens and Ricci. Our collection attorney was able to obtain a copy of the buy/sell agreement for further analysis. After looking over this legal document, we found that it included a set-aside provision and a reserve allowance to pay unsecured creditors like our client who hold an open balance during the transaction. By enforcing this provision, we were able to force the debtor to pay our client’s invoices in full.
The average collection agent would not be able to obtain a copy of the buy/sell agreement even if they were aware that such a document existed. The legal offices of the debtor’s counsel would never even discuss the matter with a mere collection agent. By using a commercial debt recovery lawyer instead, our client avoided losing a substantial amount of money.

Commercial Debt Recovery in Oklahoma

If you’ve been less than impressed with the results that your Oklahoma collection agent has been providing, take advantage of the corporate debt recovery legal team at Stevens and Ricci. Our commercial debt recovery attorneys deliver an aggressive 72% recovery rate compared to the average 28% rate that most collection agencies provide. Not only will we recover more of your debt, we’ll also collect it faster. In most cases, you’ll receive payment in 45 days or less. If your company is located near Tulsa, OK or Oklahoma City, give our offices a call to start the collection process.

Collection Attorneys in Oklahoma Succeed Where Others Fail

By taking advantage of critical opportunities that the collection agency misses, we succeed where they fail. Your collection agent will make a few phone calls, but give up when they don’t receive a positive response. Our debt collection lawyers actually track down the debtor, wherever they may be, to negotiate a payment plan. Our national support network includes private investigators and collection lawyers in every state. They will leave no stone unturned when pursuing your corporate debts. Our services are strictly pre-litigation, but your debtor doesn’t know that. One hint of a lawsuit, and they will take the negotiation process seriously. By combining the collections and legal functions into one streamlined team, the Stevens and Ricci firm leaves no opportunity out of the equation. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Debt Collection Attorneys

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