COLLECTIONS:  THE RIGHT APPROACH

If a customer owes your business money, it's hard not to feel angry, like you want to do anything possible to get your money back. Repeated phone calls. Letters by the dozen. Your cousin Vinnie.  However, the days of going all out to collect on a debt are over.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, designed to protect consumers from harassment or intimidation, sets firm limits on what you can do to collect a debt from a consumer.  The Act even prohibits practices that were once standard, practices that you might not consider to be harassment at all.  But, should you violate the Act in any way, your business could be liable for damages far in excess of the debt you were trying to collect.

Besides, as a local business, you have an even more powerful reason to be especially careful about debt collection issues.  You have something much more valuable at stake than a lawsuit: your business's reputation in the community.  You want to be seen as fair, honest, and trustworthy, and crossing the line with the Act will hurt that reputation.

Having an attorney guide you through your collection process offers several advantages over the DIY approach.  First, communications made by an attorney have a much greater impact upon a consumer and will convey your seriousness to collect what is owed to you.  Second, a collections attorney will have the knowledge of the appropriate standards to help guide you successfully through the legal maze of collections so that you don't end up on the wrong side of the law.