6 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Your Debts to a Legal Practice
by Adam Stewart
Previously, we talked about the advantages of outsourcing to a debt collection agency, “7 Reasons Why You Should Partner with a Debt Collection Agency.” This week, I wanted to talk about the benefits of sending your debt recovery matters straight to a legal practice.
Whilst some customers will respond to the debt recovery techniques employed by your business or a commercial debt collection agency, others need an even firmer approach to persuade them to settle outstanding invoices. This is where legal proceedings can have the best impact.
So here are 6 reasons why you should outsource your debts to a legal practice:
1. Save time
This is the most obvious one. As a Financial or Credit Controller, you may find an increasing amount of your time is taken up collecting debts, when you could be concentrating on credit control and prevention of bad debt. If the debt is over $5,000.00 and you know the location of the debtor, it’s worth sending directly to a lawyer. Often a lawyer can also recover some of your legal fees and even interest from the date the debt became overdue.
2. Higher Success Rate
It makes sense that a debt collection professional will have a higher recovery rate that you could get internally. In addition to their in-depth experience, agencies also have the tools in place to track and monitor the progress of all of your accounts without having to establish new procedures like you might have to by doing it on your own.
3. Sending a message
Going straight to legal sends a strong message to your client that you are serious about payment. If they are an ongoing client, this will send a strong message to them not to be late in payment again. You will also send a wider message to the people in your industry, that you are serious about credit control and account receivable. You and your company will eventually be respected for your very tight controls over credit and the financial side of the business.
4. Professional Opinion
A lot of the time, you may be just guessing about the likelihood of recovery against a particular company or individual. Debt recovery may not be your forte. Debt recovery litigation experts like ADC Legal-Litigation Lawyers, do this sort of things all day every day. We are experts in this field, so we are going to be able to very quickly sort the good from the bad. We may decide, for instance ,to send a letter before issuing proceedings in court. Often this is all the action that is needed to get the customer to pay, or at least open a dialogue about the debt with the customer. It is important to have a litigation lawyer evaluate each individual debt and pick the course of action that will best maximise its recovery. Sometimes we even recommend to write of the debt instead, say if we investigate and find the debtor company is bankrupt or in liquidation.
5. Someone Else to Handle Disputes
This can be one of the most time-consuming parts of the recovery process. Quite often, the debtor company will dispute either the amount, or the good or services provided, or both. We handle all disputes matters by investigating the whole issue, with all the stakeholders that may be involved. Sometimes this process takes months, so we have a diary process that can look after these cases.
6. Lawyers Offer Fixed-Fee Billing and no commission
Debt collection litigation experts do not work on commission. Instead, they will often offer fixed-fee rates for undefended debt recovery work. This can work out cheaper than having to pay commission, especially for very large debts.
Fixed-fee billing provides certainty about the legal costs, so there are no nasty surprises.
Our lawyers will also only charge you according to the work they do. If the lawyer only needs to send one letter of demand, then you only pay for that one letter of demand. This can make a debt recovery lawyer cheaper than a collection agency in some cases.
The legal system can be complex and, with a lot of legal jargon to understand, can be off-putting for many businesses. By employing a good company to start the legal proceedings on your behalf you will have the added benefit of experts that can offer sound, practical support.
Contact a Debt Collection Expert
If you have any overdue debts you are particularly concerned about, please call Debt Recoveries Australia on 1300 799 511 to discuss your options. Alternatively, you can email us at email@debtrecoveries.com.au and one of our staff will be in touch.
Email: email@debtrecoveries.com.au
Call Us: +61 1300 799 511
About the Author In 2002, Adam Stewart established Debt Recoveries Australia Pty Ltd, a debt collection agency specialising in the insurance claims industry. Adam has worked in the fields of motor vehicle insurance and debt recovery for over 12 years, working with some of the largest insurance and debt recovery companies in Australia. Read more |