Tools of the Debt Collection Lawyer

The first tool employed by an attorney in collecting a debt is the Attorney Demand Letter. I will normally make a decision on whether or not to send the debtor an Attorney Demand Letter based on the debtor's prior history and the creditor's prior attempts to collect the debt. A creditor may question why an attorney is going to send a letter asking for payment when the creditor has done this on a number of occasions or may have even sent the debt to a collection agency who has not only sent demand letters, but made telephone calls to the debtor's home and place of employment.

An attorney has a wide variety of tools available to collect a debt. This arsenal of tools extends well beyond what is available to an original creditor or even a collection agency employed to collect the debt prior to the attorney becoming involved. Additionally, these tools offer a step-by-step increase in the ability to involuntarily wrest money away from the debtor.

There are three primary reasons for utilizing the Attorney Demand Letter. First, it has been my experience that somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent of debtors who have been adamant in their refusal to pay will, upon receipt of an Attorney Demand Letter, pay the full amount owed. There is something intimidating about receiving a letter saying you owe the money on an attorney's letterhead. The Attorney Demand Letter ratchets up the seriousness of the matter substantially.

The second reason for sending out the Attorney Demand Letter is to comply with certain state statutes and to allow for the possibility of recovery of attorney's fees in certain circumstances. For example, in the state of Mississippi when a debtor owes money and that debt is not based upon a contract or agreement which allows for attorney's fees, if the attorney sends an Attorney Demand Letter and gives the debtor a reasonable period of time to satisfy the debt prior to filing suit, the attorney may then recover attorney's fees in that suit.
Many times or the creditor or a collection agency employed by the creditor has told the debtor, "If you don't pay this debt, I am going to send it to an attorney for suit." Many times the debtor sees this merely as a bluff. When the letter arrives on attorney letterhead giving the debtor an exact number of days before a lawsuit is going to be filed, the debtor now realizes that the creditor has not been bluffing, nor making idle threats. That has the two-fold effect of creating increased credibility with that particular debtor and creating a reputation for the creditor that it does not make idle threats or bluff.