subject: Who Is Best For Recovering Your Debt? [print this page] I am not a lawyer, I am a debt and judgment referral specialist (Judgment Broker). This article is my opinion, based on my experience in California, and laws are different in each state. If you ever need legal advice or a strategy to use, please contact a lawyer.
If one has a debt or a judgment, you may attempt to recover it yourself, however many people seek help from professionals. This article discusses the pros and cons of retaining judgment enforcers and collection agencies.
A possible disadvantage of using judgment recovery professionals is that they are most often sole proprietors or very small companies. An advantage with collection agencies is that they are usually companies with more employees, which makes them more stable and better able to respond.
A disadvantage of judgment enforcers is that they are most often very firm on pricing. It does not matter to judgment recovery professionals how old the debt or judgment is, they most often charge fifty percent to recover, As they need to factor in all the lemon cases they ended up wasting money on, trying to recover. (Nobody can predict with certainty which cases will become lemons.) Sometimes collection agencies are cheaper when the debt or judgment is new.
A disadvantage with judgment enforcers is that they are more likely to suddenly exit the judgment business, than an average collection agency. In my job, I know the statistics, some judgment enforcers who exit the judgment business do not properly assign judgments back to the creditors.
A potential disadvantage with judgment enforcers is they must take ownership of every judgment or debt. This is not really a disadvantage, unless they go out of business. Collection agencies have the advantage of not owning your debt or judgment.
Most judgment enforcers only recover judgments, however most collection agencies recover both debts or judgments.
An advantage with judgment recovery professionals (especially if the debtor has assets) is they usually try much harder than most collection agencies. Most judgment recovery professionals are more creative than collection agencies with challenging cases.
An advantage of collection agencies is, they take debts or judgments of almost any amount. Judgment enforcers usually have minimum dollar amounts they will take, and do not take any judgments less than that minimum.
An advantage with collection agencies is they will most often try to recover any viable judgment or debt. Judgment recovery professionals are getting even more picky now, on which judgments they will take, due to the awful economy.
While this article covers the pros and cons of using a judgment recovery professional or a collection agency, each judgment or debt situation is different. Deciding which is right for your debtor, is not always easy, and a judgment broker can really help.
