California Debt Collection Attorneys
Trying to collect your own corporate debts in California can be a challenge. You may not receive substantially better results by contracting with a standard collection agency. When you choose to use the services of a debt collection attorney instead, you’ll have the advantage of the best recovery process available. The commercial debt recovery firm of Stevens and Ricci has a 72% recovery rate and can usually provide results in less than 45 days. Compare these numbers to the much lower 28% rate that the typical collection agency offers and the much slower collection time. If your business is located near Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Newport Beach, call our offices today to start the corporate debt collection process.
The Business Collection Attorney Difference
Whether you’re operating a company in Sacramento, CA or San Diego, CA, hiring a collection attorney will make a big difference to your cash flow. While collection agencies often miss critical opportunities, debt collection attorneys take advantage of every possible method to collect your debt. A standard debt collection agency will make a few phone calls. They may quickly give up when they don’t speak to someone or receive a response to their messages. In stark contrast, the business debt collection team at Stevens & Ricci will stop at nothing to locate the debtor and begin negotiations. Our national support network includes collection attorneys in every state as well as private investigators. While we concentrate on pre-litigation services, we’ve found that a discussion with a licensed collection lawyer carries much more weight than a phone call from a collection agency representative. Just a hint of a lawsuit is usually enough to begin the payment process. When you use Stevens & Ricci’s services, you’ll be able to leverage the combined experience of expert collectors and lawyers for the very best results. Call our Anaheim or Oakland offices today to discuss how we can help in your situation.
California Makes Corporate Debt Recovery a Challenge
Whether you’re operating from the San Jose, CA or Santa Ana, CA areas, the laws are not always on your side when you’re trying to collect money that is legitimately owed to your company. To garnish a bank account, you must first obtain a judgment and a writ of execution. Next, the sheriff or court marshal must deliver the writ to the bank before collection can commence. While you can collect your entire debt from the bank account if the funds are there, the time lag between obtaining a judgment and delivering paperwork to the financial institution will allow your debtor plenty of time to empty all of their accounts. If you use the business collection attorneys provided by Stevens and Ricci, they will usually be able to begin the payment process without the need to go to these drastic measures that are often unsuccessful.
The Stevens & Ricci Difference
The collection lawyers in our network will provide numerous additional advantages to your business debt recovery needs. In addition to outperforming the collection agency in virtually every case, they also have knowledge and authority that isn’t available to those outside the legal arena. Collection attorneys can file motions with the court to force debtors and their agents to appear and disclose sensitive financial information. When a debtor obtains legal representation, most collection agencies will immediately give up. Our commercial debt collection attorneys welcome this development. We will seek out their counsel to start more advanced negotiations. The following sections provide even more strategies that a normal collection company would never consider trying.
Principal Identification
The theories of liability and alter-egos can be successfully used by debt collection attorneys to collect debts from the owner of the business. Much of the corporate debt that goes into collection is fraudulent. Sometimes, a dishonest person will run up debt in the corporate name, and then close or sell the office without filing bankruptcy. By hiding behind the corporate veil, the debtor has put the creditor in a poor bargaining position because there is no personal guarantor, only a failed corporation. The theory of liability will often allow the debt collection attorney to pursue the principals. The alter-ego theory can also be used to collect debts in these situations. When a business owner uses non-corporate funds to pay for business expenses, the attorney can argue that the business owner personally owes the debt because the corporation was illegal.
Consent Judgments
When a debtor can’t pay in full, they will often agree to a short-term payment plan. The debt collection attorney may be able to strengthen this agreement by creating a consent judgment. If the debtor can be persuaded to sign it, the creditor will be able to obtain an immediate judgment if even one payment is missed. This process allows the debtor’s bank account to be seized without the need to spend additional time or money in the courtroom. In most cases, we already know the banking information from previous documents and can immediately seize the funds to pay the debt. A consent judgment dramatically increases the chances of payment for our clients and puts them in a better position than most secured creditors.
Business Sales
In the event of a full liquidation, most collection agencies would be at a loss. The same would hold true for a bankruptcy, acquisition, or merger. A commercial debt collection lawyer can often obtain the buy/sell agreement from the owners or their agents. Many of these documents provide set-aside provisions or reserve allowances for paying secured creditors with open balances.
California Case Study
One of our clients sold surgical equipment to a surgery center that operated in California. Soon after the sale, the surgery center closed its doors, disconnected all phone numbers, and left no further contact information. Due to the fact that the surgery center was a corporation, no personal guarantor was available to pursue for the debt.
When our client spoke to another vendor that was owed money by the surgery center, they were told that a collection agency had advised them that the debt was uncollectible because no one could be reached. Our client decided that there must be a way to collect and contacted one of the Stevens and Ricci offices located in California.
Our collection attorney began by talking to sales representatives at both our client’s company and the other vendor’s business. During the interview process, it was disclosed that a local hospital administrator was a friend of the owner of the failed surgery center. From this contact, we received the name and number of the owner’s private medical practice.
During a phone call that reached the debtor personally, we found out that they were reorganizing the surgery center and planned to reopen as a new corporate entity with new investors. We convinced the doctor to sign a Letter of Responsibility for the purchased equipment.
In this case, the debtor did not have a legal responsibility to pay the original debt, but we were able to recover the full amount due with interest. Our sensitive treatment of this case allowed the debtor to retain his reputation, and he remains one of our client’s valuable customers to this day. The outcome would have been very different if our client had relied on the advice of the collection agency.
California Debt Collection Attorneys
Trying to collect your own corporate debts in California can be a challenge. You may not receive substantially better results by contracting with a standard collection agency. When you choose to use the services of a debt collection attorney instead, you’ll have the advantage of the best recovery process available. The commercial debt recovery firm of Stevens and Ricci has a 72% recovery rate and can usually provide results in less than 45 days. Compare these numbers to the much lower 28% rate that the typical collection agency offers and the much slower collection time. If your business is located near Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Newport Beach, call our offices today to start the corporate debt collection process.
The Business Collection Attorney Difference
Whether you’re operating a company in Sacramento, CA or San Diego, CA, hiring a collection attorney will make a big difference to your cash flow. While collection agencies often miss critical opportunities, debt collection attorneys take advantage of every possible method to collect your debt. A standard debt collection agency will make a few phone calls. They may quickly give up when they don’t speak to someone or receive a response to their messages. In stark contrast, the business debt collection team at Stevens & Ricci will stop at nothing to locate the debtor and begin negotiations. Our national support network includes collection attorneys in every state as well as private investigators. While we concentrate on pre-litigation services, we’ve found that a discussion with a licensed collection lawyer carries much more weight than a phone call from a collection agency representative. Just a hint of a lawsuit is usually enough to begin the payment process. When you use Stevens & Ricci’s services, you’ll be able to leverage the combined experience of expert collectors and lawyers for the very best results. Call our Anaheim or Oakland offices today to discuss how we can help in your situation.
California Makes Corporate Debt Recovery a Challenge
Whether you’re operating from the San Jose, CA or Santa Ana, CA areas, the laws are not always on your side when you’re trying to collect money that is legitimately owed to your company. To garnish a bank account, you must first obtain a judgment and a writ of execution. Next, the sheriff or court marshal must deliver the writ to the bank before collection can commence. While you can collect your entire debt from the bank account if the funds are there, the time lag between obtaining a judgment and delivering paperwork to the financial institution will allow your debtor plenty of time to empty all of their accounts. If you use the business collection attorneys provided by Stevens and Ricci, they will usually be able to begin the payment process without the need to go to these drastic measures that are often unsuccessful.
The Stevens & Ricci Difference
The collection lawyers in our network will provide numerous additional advantages to your business debt recovery needs. In addition to outperforming the collection agency in virtually every case, they also have knowledge and authority that isn’t available to those outside the legal arena. Collection attorneys can file motions with the court to force debtors and their agents to appear and disclose sensitive financial information. When a debtor obtains legal representation, most collection agencies will immediately give up. Our commercial debt collection attorneys welcome this development. We will seek out their counsel to start more advanced negotiations. The following sections provide even more strategies that a normal collection company would never consider trying.
Principal Identification
The theories of liability and alter-egos can be successfully used by debt collection attorneys to collect debts from the owner of the business. Much of the corporate debt that goes into collection is fraudulent. Sometimes, a dishonest person will run up debt in the corporate name, and then close or sell the office without filing bankruptcy. By hiding behind the corporate veil, the debtor has put the creditor in a poor bargaining position because there is no personal guarantor, only a failed corporation. The theory of liability will often allow the debt collection attorney to pursue the principals. The alter-ego theory can also be used to collect debts in these situations. When a business owner uses non-corporate funds to pay for business expenses, the attorney can argue that the business owner personally owes the debt because the corporation was illegal.
Consent Judgments
When a debtor can’t pay in full, they will often agree to a short-term payment plan. The debt collection attorney may be able to strengthen this agreement by creating a consent judgment. If the debtor can be persuaded to sign it, the creditor will be able to obtain an immediate judgment if even one payment is missed. This process allows the debtor’s bank account to be seized without the need to spend additional time or money in the courtroom. In most cases, we already know the banking information from previous documents and can immediately seize the funds to pay the debt. A consent judgment dramatically increases the chances of payment for our clients and puts them in a better position than most secured creditors.
Business Sales
In the event of a full liquidation, most collection agencies would be at a loss. The same would hold true for a bankruptcy, acquisition, or merger. A commercial debt collection lawyer can often obtain the buy/sell agreement from the owners or their agents. Many of these documents provide set-aside provisions or reserve allowances for paying secured creditors with open balances.
California Case Study
One of our clients sold surgical equipment to a surgery center that operated in California. Soon after the sale, the surgery center closed its doors, disconnected all phone numbers, and left no further contact information. Due to the fact that the surgery center was a corporation, no personal guarantor was available to pursue for the debt.
When our client spoke to another vendor that was owed money by the surgery center, they were told that a collection agency had advised them that the debt was uncollectible because no one could be reached. Our client decided that there must be a way to collect and contacted one of the Stevens and Ricci offices located in California.
Our collection attorney began by talking to sales representatives at both our client’s company and the other vendor’s business. During the interview process, it was disclosed that a local hospital administrator was a friend of the owner of the failed surgery center. From this contact, we received the name and number of the owner’s private medical practice.
During a phone call that reached the debtor personally, we found out that they were reorganizing the surgery center and planned to reopen as a new corporate entity with new investors. We convinced the doctor to sign a Letter of Responsibility for the purchased equipment.
In this case, the debtor did not have a legal responsibility to pay the original debt, but we were able to recover the full amount due with interest. Our sensitive treatment of this case allowed the debtor to retain his reputation, and he remains one of our client’s valuable customers to this day. The outcome would have been very different if our client had relied on the advice of the collection agency.
