Our firm prides itself on not just getting a paper Judgment, which is pretty but meaningless; you want money, not paper. In order to enforce Judgments, we need information on where the debtor banks, what they own, and who owes them money.
Sure, we can run credit searches after we get Judgments, but lately, those are not giving us the meaningful information we need on bank accounts.
So, this is where you, the Credito,r come in.
Our firm mainly represents businesses, and as such, we encourage our clients to get the money we will need “up front.” The easiest way to do that is through a credit application.
The key things we look for are driver’s licence numbers, the address of their banks, parties with whom the business contracts, and any property they own. All of these things will help us locate and garnish the debtor to enforce the Judgment.
Additionally, you want to obtain permission from the debtor (before they’re a debtor) to carry out periodic credit bureau searches. This will help you recognize problems before they start, in many cases.
Overall, the adage “knowledge is power” is true, and the more you can provide us with knowledge, the quicker we can turn that paper into money, which, yes, is another form of paper.
Inga B. Andriessen, Principal Lawyer