I begin the pre-lawsuit demand process with a letter, and a few days later—if I haven’t heard from the debtor yet—I will follow up with a phone call. If I have an email address for the debtor, I will send an email message, too.
My practice covers the entire state of Florida, including the panhandle. I participate in a lot of hearings by telephone, but if I need to be there in person, I certainly will be. We can do pre-lawsuit collecting outside of Florida as well.
I do make a lot of phone calls. In my experience, if I can get a debtor on the phone, then we stand a good chance of resolving the balance without the need for a lawsuit. Presuming we reach an agreement, I will send a confirming letter with the payment details.
Sometimes it is difficult to find a debtor, because either the phone is disconnected or the mail is being returned. The Internet is a great tool for research on debtors. The Florida Department of State’s web site (sunbiz.org) and the web sites for the various Florida clerks of court are vital to my collection practice.
My research typically includes looking at online public records at the clerks’ web sites, which show deeds, judgments, and liens. Property appraisers’ web sites are helpful as well. And the web site myfloridacounty.com allows me to search public records for multiple counties at once. That site covers most, but not all, of Florida’s counties.
Credit applications can be a good source of banking information, as well as contact information, email addresses, and home addresses. I recommend making copies of all checks that you receive, so that you have banking information as well. There is no guarantee that a bank account will be active when we go to collect the judgment, but the costs to file a garnishment are relatively low (compared with the possibility of catching significant funds in an account).
Many businesses have social media accounts, and often these have more current information than the business web site.
I always run an Internet search on the debtor’s name (as well as the names of its principals), to see if there is anything recent online, such as a news article. For example, if you were to find something saying the business has closed, you’d want to verify that to the extent possible, but if it’s true, you may not want to spend the costs to file a lawsuit.
