You’ve sent invoices. You’ve followed up. Maybe you’ve called a few times. And still nothing. At some point, the question stops being “will they pay?” and starts being “what do I actually do now?”
Most creditors default to the same answer: hand it off to a collection agency. It’s familiar, it seems low-effort, and agencies are everywhere. But for commercial debts, disputed balances, or any situation where the debtor has assets worth pursuing, that default choice often costs you more than it saves.
A debt collection attorney operates with tools a collection agency simply doesn’t have access to, and the difference in results can be substantial.
What a Debt Collection Agency Can and Cannot DoDebt collection may seem daunting, but the power of a collection agency is actually quite limited.
They can mail a letter, make a phone call, and report the debt on your credit report, but that’s about it. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act limits the frequency and nature of collection calls and even the time of day they can call you. None of these requirements gives debt collectors any real legal authority or muscle.
If you, as a debtor, simply do nothing in response to a collection agency, they’re pretty much stuck. A collection agency has no way to file a lawsuit, obtain a judgment, freeze a bank account, or garnish wages. Their only leverage comes from pressure tactics, and experienced debtors often know how limited that leverage really is.
An attorney can file a lawsuit, and that changes the situation entirely
With real legal action on the table, a debtor’s options look much different. You can ignore a collection letter, and your credit may take a hit, but if you ignore an attempt by a creditors’ rights law firm to bring a lawsuit against you, you’re at risk of a judgment, potential wage garnishment, bank levies, and a lien placed on property you own. That’s certainly not an annoyance anymore; that’s a much bigger issue.
Paul Humbert, Esq., the founder of the Law Offices of Paul A. Humbert, P.L., has dedicated his entire legal career to helping banks, financial institutions, businesses, and individual creditors throughout Florida in situations where they are owed money and have no recourse. His firm has been successful in recovering tens of millions of dollars in bad debt because the threat of filing a lawsuit gets debtors to pay far more often than a stack of letters ever will.
Many creditors think that obtaining the judgment is the end of the problem. In many cases, it’s only the beginning.
When it comes to enforcement, that’s when things get much more difficult, and it’s often why creditors come to Paul Humbert, especially after a previous attorney has unsuccessfully tried to collect.
A collections lawyer can use a number of methods to enforce a judgment, including:
Each of these has specific procedures in Florida, and the rules for enforcing a writ of garnishment in Florida, for example, are very particular. If you follow the wrong path, you lose the remedy. A debt collection lawyer is very familiar with this process and handles it routinely. Collection agencies cannot do any of this.
Statute of Limitations: Why Most Creditors Lose by WaitingMany people are surprised to learn that debts do not last forever. In Florida, the statute of limitations for written contracts is typically five years. You have a limited window for filing a lawsuit on both credit card debts and verbal contracts. Once that window closes, you lose the ability to bring a suit to court, regardless of whether the debt is legitimate.
One of the first things a debt collection lawyer will evaluate is the applicable statute of limitations. When the deadline is fast approaching, timing is everything. When a debtor tries to stretch out the negotiation period in hopes that the statute of limitations will lapse, an experienced lawyer will know that’s exactly what’s going on.
Collection agencies have been known to overlook statutes of limitation. That has caused more than a few creditors to lose out on recoveries they were otherwise entitled to.
How you pursue collection depends in part on the type of debt you’re trying to collect.
Debts owed by consumers (i.e., people) are regulated by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This means a creditor’s ability to enforce its rights is more constrained by federal regulations in a consumer debt scenario compared with commercial debt (i.e., money owed between companies).
Paul Humbert’s firm has experience with both types of cases. If you are a business attempting to collect on a debt owed to you by another business, the firm’s attorneys handle every type of commercial litigation connected to the nonpayment of monies due for goods or services. For banks and other institutional lenders with consumer debt to collect on, the firm’s attorneys provide judgment enforcement that requires both skillful legal representation and business sense.
This is where many creditors stop pursuing recovery, but that’s really not the right move.
When a debtor files a bankruptcy claim, that does not erase the debt. What changes is the forum for collection; it shifts to bankruptcy court, where showing up is critical. Creditors who don’t respond (and therefore don’t file a claim or dispute the discharge) in bankruptcy proceedings will frequently lose their ability to be paid, not because the debt has disappeared or lost its value, but because the creditor assumes the bankruptcy means there are no rights left to enforce.
The Law Offices of Paul A. Humbert, P.L., represents creditors throughout the bankruptcy process precisely because so many creditors lose recoveries simply by failing to show up. That outcome is avoidable.
The Law Offices of Paul A. Humbert, P.L. has built its reputation on the difficult and complicated creditor enforcement cases that other attorneys can’t or won’t take on.
A portion of the firm’s practice involves cases where a prior attorney already tried and failed to resolve the matter, which gives the firm’s attorneys a valuable perspective. Collecting from a debtor who has already survived an earlier recovery attempt by a lawyer means the current lawyer must be that much more diligent and creative.
Real creditor enforcement requires knowing where assets are located, how to structure a levy or lien correctly, and how to litigate without burning a fortune on motions that go nowhere. There’s a real difference between a firm that handles only creditor rights cases and a general practice that dabbles in debt-related matters when they come up.
If you are having trouble collecting monies owed to you, contact the Law Offices of Paul A. Humbert, P.L., for a free initial consultation.
