When you have a commercial debtor who won’t pay but stays in business, they’re using your money to stay afloat. We called this “creditor financing.” Worse, they may be using your money to buy materials from your competitors.
This is a battle for control of the money. Your debtor claims they cannot pay (“CANOPS”), but they’re still in operation. It’s more likely they will not pay (“WILLNOPS”). If you’ve got a WILLNOPS, you’ve got a deadbeat. You need to take control of your money back.
At the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC, we have a proven, three-step method to take back control, and it has nothing to do with calling the debtor a thousand more times:
- Step 1: File suit
- Step 2: Freeze and seize the debtor’s assets
- Step 3: Get you paid
We can’t promise you will get paid, but we can promise that if we can’t get you paid, no one could.
We don’t waste time hiring collection agencies or threating a lawsuit. We file suit immediately. We may also seek a pre-judgment attachment on certain assets, without notice to the debtor. That freezes those assets without giving the debtor a chance to move them out of reach.
Once we have a judgment in hand, we can get a writ of execution. This writ tells the local sheriff’s deputy to seize the assets we have already frozen.
That’s just one example of how we deal with the WILLNOPS of the world.
My debtor says they can’t pay, not won’t
At the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC, we have over 50 years of experience collecting from commercial debtors. If your debtor claims not to be able to pay but continues to operate, a court judgment is still the right way to go, in most cases.
That is because Massachusetts courts don’t allow us to look into a debtor’s assets before we get a judgment. Once we have one, the fun begins.
That judgment allows us to examine the debtor’s bank accounts and financial statements and post-judgment depositions to find out exactly what the debtor has and where they have it. There is no limit to the information we can seek and our experience and exclusive focus on collections have taught us a few good ways to find where the debtor is keeping their money.
If you’re ready to take back control over your money, call 508-763-6604 or reach out using our online form to schedule an appointment.