Seven Things We Want Our Creditor Clients to Know.
We work hard to help clients recover their money and we are largely successful at what we do. Neverthless, there are always risks with litigation.
In order to help clients make a decision to litigate or not we provide honest, upfront assessments of files even if that means telling a client something they may not want to hear. As part of our efforts to provide realistic expectations we would like all of our creditor clients to take note of the following:
INITIAL ASSESSMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE – Assessing files is an ongoing process and subject to change as additional information becomes available. The more information we have at the outset the better our initial assessment (see “Documents Required” below).
THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES – While we endeavour to use objective criteria in providing our assessments we do not and cannot guarantee the outcome of any matter. Our ability to collect a debt often has more to do with who a creditor has chosen to extend credit to, and under what circumstances, than the legal strengths of a case.
LITIGATION TAKES TIME AND MONEY – Many Small Claims Court matters take six to nine months to reach some type of final order and from there additional time may be required to see payment in full. Consequently, patience is required. In addition, both the court and legal representatives require payment each step of the way.
SETTLEMENTS, IF POSSIBLE, ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – Because litigation involves time, money and risk we encourage creditor’s to make business-like decisions with respect to resolving any matter. Generally, we advise creditor’s to consider delinquent accounts as “lost” money and further regard any recovered amounts as a “bonus.”
ONTARIO’S LIMITATION’S ACT – Generally speaking, a creditor has two years from the due date of its invoice(s) to commence a lawsuit otherwise the opportunity to litigate may be lost. We require authorization to litigate at least three months before the expiration of a limitation period to ensure a claim is filed on time.
DOCUMENTS REQUIRED – If a creditor wishes us to proceed with litigation we ask for the following:
Primary Documents
- Credit application and/or credit report obtained prior to extending credit
- Business names search and/or corporate profile report obtained prior to extending credit
- Contract and/or invoice terms and conditions
- Statement of account and ALL unpaid invoices
Information To Aid In Litigation
- Brief narrative detailing the nature of the dispute including the debtor’s position
- Explanation of business dealings if not simple sale of goods or services
- Explanation of damage claim if not simple liquidated claim
Documents That Aid In Execution
- Past cheque(s) from debtor
- Debtor’s known customers and/or sources of revenue
Generally, the more information we have from this list the greater the chances of collecting a debt. Please be advised, if a creditor instructs us to commence litigation without providing most of the above information the creditor bears the risks and costs associated with same.
OUR GENERAL CONDITIONS OF SERVICE APPLY – If a copy did not accompany your Retainer Agreement or Invoice please please let us know and we will provide you with one.
