No one likes being owed money. It damages relationships, often irretrievably, and it’s understandable that you don’t want to stir up trouble, especially if it’s a business or personal relationship that is important to you.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve provided a service or products, or loaned money to a business partner or a friend and they haven’t paid you back. It’s likely you’ve already exhausted multiple options and now you’re wondering what you can do next.

Your initial attempts to recover your money might have been that:

• You made numerous polite phone calls.
• You sent a polite reminder possibly in the form of an email, so that you’d at least have something in writing.
• You sent other, increasingly assertive emails.
• You sent a more assertive and somewhat less polite reminder, this time as a letter.
• You sent a final notice, warning that if the matter wasn’t settled by a particular date, you would have no further option than to “take the matter further”.

In our experience, these attempts to recover debts are often met with:

• Apologies for late payment.
• Promises that the payment would happen in due course.
• Explanations as to why the debt had not yet been settled.
• Excuses as to why the debt had not yet been settled.
• More apologies and failed payment plan after failed payment plan.

But now you’ve come to the point where you’ve heard all the explanations and excuses, and the promises have come to sound more and more hollow – a payment that will never arrive. 

It’s understandable that you’ve gone through this process as it is . Depending on your personality and character, and the role you’ve played in this drama, you might have only taken a couple of steps before losing patience. Other people, with maybe a higher tolerance for this sort of pain, might have gone through all these steps, and a lot more, before even contemplating the idea that, “Maybe I should start talking to a debt recovery lawyer?”

It’s understandable, especially in business, that you might empathise when people are going through a “rough patch” and they might need a little leniency. But everything has a tipping point, and perhaps you’ve come to point when you realise that it’s now you who is at a loss.

The decision on whether to engage a debt recovery lawyer hinges on ONE key factor

Is the debt worth recovering? 

Legal proceedings will incur fees. An ethical and competent lawyer will be very clear about the likely costs involved in recovering the debt before you start the proceedings. You can then decide if that is a price you are willing to pay. If the debt is relatively small and there are little prospects of recovery (for example, the debtor is unemployed and owns no assets), then it may the case that you should write the debt off.  BUT, before making assumptions, it’s best to speak to a lawyer and understand what potential you have to either recover your assets or write off your losses.

After taking all the necessary factors into consideration, if you do decide to engage a lawyer, there’s a variety of recovery avenues and options that can be pursued. Give us a call today and find out how we can help.

To find out more, contact us today.