Intragration

I've got a business situation, I'm going to be attempting to collect on a B2B debt owed to me. Wondering if anyone here has any real experience with this that I can bounce some thoughts and ideas off of?

MDchanic

Depending on the size of the debt, small claims court works well and is relatively easy.
You can also usually do it without a lawyer.

As long as you have proof that
they owe you, and
they didn't pay you
the court will rule in your favor (if the opponent doesn't have a good argument against either 1 or 2 above), and then you can, through some red tape, use their local sheriff to collect the debt, plus a percentage for the sheriff.

In addition to paperwork (receipts, contracts, etc), properly documented recordings of telephone calls can be helpful in certain states (It's completely legal to record your conversations in some states, a felony in others) - if you can call up, say "C'mon, why aren't you paying me?" and have them reply "I don't have it right now," or "I'll never pay you, you jerk," rather than "I don't know what you're talking about," then you've got them admitting that they owe you the money.

- Eric

Mike77

Forget the court. Have you ever tried via court system? Waste of time and lot's money. Lot's of time to get a judgement, then even more time and money trying to collect, then you have to get a payment order ,then he cry's to judge and the judge says OK pay him $12.50 a week for the next 40 years. And if he misses any of those payments back to court to get another enforcement order and on and on it goes. Now if you have nothing better to do for the next two years file a claim. Good luck you will need it.
Bring a couple of knuckle draggers and tell him your serious about him paying you. No threats but in his face. Take his stuff and sell it. Tell the cops he gave it to you for payment. Then he can play the court game.

Been there, done that, aint gonna do it again.

Mike

Intragration

Thanks guys, I'm not going to post any details up here, but I thank you for your ideas.

oldcutlass

How much is the debt? A service or product? I tend to agree with Mike!

TripDeuces

Just bring Alex with you, he'll set the droogs straight

Maybe a bit of the ole ultraviolence

69442C

The first thing would be to make certain the business has assets to pursue. Some get creative in hiding those assets in other people's names or through other companies. Do some homework to make sure you understand as much as you can about the business. Also try to do an Internet case search to see if anyone else ever sued them and how that went. Their sucess or failure will give you a lot of insight. I hope it works out well for you.

jensenracing77

small claims is the best way if it is not a large amount but there can be unseen consequences to it. i was going to do a small claim on a machine shop for destroying my W-350 intake manifold. i didn't because there were some land owners that let me and my friends ride our ATVs on there property. if they seen me in the paper for taking someone to small claims, they would have not let us ride on there property anymore. also the machine shop owners wife was a major purchaser from the company i work for.
i'm not saying to not do anything but just trying to give an angle to consider if you haven't.

MDchanic

Maybe in Canada, but in NY I once had occasion to use small claims court to good effect (obviously useless if this is over several thousand dollars - amounts vary by state). I had to pay the filing fee of ten or twenty dollars, have a friend who the defendant didn't know "serve" her (say her name and drop an envelope with a court date in front of her), show up in court, state the case, get no good rebuttal, wait a customary few weeks, then take the judgement to the county sheriff, along with a copy of a check from a previous payment, showing the account number, and wait a few more weeks for the sheriff to deduct the amount form the account (plus 15% for his troubles) and cut me a check.

It was surprisingly easy and effective.

- Eric

Mike77

Small claims can be easier especially if you have cancelled cheques, bank account details etc. I was dealing with $40K and he was effectively hiding his cash, OOPS my cash. AHHH the memories of past business deals. Really learned how ineffective the courts can be.
I'm still singing in the rain, can't let MONEY ruin life.

Mike