Florida collection attorneys are critical for any business owner to get to know and work with. It’s true no one wants to work with a collection attorney, and the attorney isn’t upset about that.
These attorneys know no one wants to call them and form a business relationship because it means their own business is facing trouble. That trouble is one or more clients who refuse to pay their invoices.
It’s a problem for many business owners in Florida who charge for their services following their job. You did the work, and you expect payment for it. When that payment doesn’t come, your business suffers.
Business owners in Florida have expenses, and they’re not cheap. If your clients aren’t sending you the money they owe you, you want to get it as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is to stay on top of your finances all the time. It’s time-consuming, but it’s worthwhile. It’s also worthwhile to consider hiring Florida collection attorneys sooner rather than later. Before you assume you needn’t do this, understand how it works and how it benefits you and your business.
When a Client Doesn’t Pay
It happens, and it happens more often than most business owners in Florida care to admit. The good news is sometimes you come across an unpaid invoice that a client is happy to pay right away. You might send a second notice or make a phone call only to receive a response along the lines of embarrassment and horror that a client forgot to pay.
It happens all the time that someone forgets to mail a check, misplaces an invoice, or simply didn’t receive it in the first place. When this happens, the customer is happy to respond with payment right away.
When the customer doesn’t respond to a second invoice or a call, you might assume they’re not in the mood to pay. By the time you send a third notice or one that states you’ll be forced to seek legal action if they don’t pay, you have lost hope the client is going to send payment voluntarily.
Some people are scared at the thought of legal ramifications, and they will send a check. Others assume you’re bluffing because the time, effort, and money you have to spend to hire a collection attorney to do the work of collecting a debt is perceived as too much. Now you hire a collection attorney.
Collection Attorneys and Their Job
Once you determine it’s time to handle the situation with legal force, it’s been a few months since an invoice was sent and a client failed to pay. You’re upset, and they’re probably of the opinion you’re not going to do much more than send letter after letter and notice after notice. The collection attorney takes over that account information for you, and you get some much-needed time back to do the work you love and enjoy.
The attorney sends a letter of their own. When your client sees you were not bluffing and legal action is being taken, most pay right away. Their lack of knowledge regarding the law is astounding, and they often assume you are going to sue. They don’t want to go through that, so they pay.
If the client still refuses to pay the bill they owe, the attorney will simply file a lawsuit. In most cases, provided you have the proper paperwork and proof you did the job and require payment, the customer who didn’t pay will be ordered by a judge to pay.
If they cannot afford to pay you, the judge might garnish their business checking account or even take it further by placing a lien on the home of the customer if you have a personal guarantee. If the customer doesn’t pay you but they do sell their home, the law requires you are paid before they are. This allows you to get your money, but there is no guarantee it will be anytime in the near future.
Hiring a collection attorney allows you to receive payment faster, and it saves you time. Every time a client forgoes paying a bill, you spend more time in the office working on their account. You have to take time out of your schedule to create more invoices, to send more letters, and to make more calls. It takes away from the job you do regularly, and no business owner can afford to lose precious work time.
When you hire a collection attorney, they do their job to help you receive the payments you’re owed by customers while also giving you back the time you’re missing working on their case. It’s cost-effective since you can charge the fees you owe to the attorney to the client who didn’t pay.