How Do I Send Someone To Collections?

[Marc]

------------------------- Followup To - I have an oustanding bill from someone who used my servies twice and never paid.  I have signed documents from this gentleman acknowledging how much my fees are and he still refuses to pay.  I have all of his information to report this to his credit report, but don't know how to go about such a thing.  I wanted to get some advice on what I can do.  I work for myself as a mobile notary, but I do not own a business.

THanks.

[freedom97]

- Hi Cynthia -  Generally speaking, the way that negative entries get on credit reports is where the creditor belongs to one of the three credit reporting agencies(Equifax, Experian - formerly TRW, and Transunion), and the negatives are just reported as a matter of course on their account receivables.  Since you are probably not a member of one of these, you will have to find another tactic to get your money.  Besides, just having a small debt for a notary service wouldn't mess up the person's credit all that much anyway.  

However, I think if I were in your shoes, what I would do is to just sue the person in small claims court.  Call your local court clerk and ask them how to do this - you don't need a lawyer, they will probably charge about 20 dollars to file this, and you can get a court judgment for that amount on top of what the person owes you.  Once you get a court judgment, THAT is a public record and it will be reported to the credit reporting agencies in addition to being a judicial lien against any property that the debtor has(that means that if he owns a house and sells it they will have to pay you out of the proceeds of the sale).  

Also, once you get a judgment, you can have the sheriff levy any personal property the debtor has that is not exempt.  If you get to that point, get back in touch with me and I will show you how to do that.

If you do bring an action in small claims court, make the allegation not only that you had a contract for your services and that the person didn't pay you, but also allege that the debtor used your services never intending to pay.  State that he FRAUDULENTLY obtained your services with no intention to pay.  That way, if he should file for bankruptcy, that debt to you may be non-dischargeable(that is, he would still have to pay it despite the bankruptcy).

Thank you for your help and the insightful information.  Normally, I wouldn't get go after someone for a small notary bill, but this person had jerked us all around and had me come out 4 times!  He even signed the 4 different sets of documents and right at the end of each recision, he would suddenly change his mind and want a different program all together.  He had me sit around for 2 hours while all he did was complain about the loan his broker gave him, but he'd still sign.  My bill for distance and time is now close to $600.00 dollars.  I will indeed take your advice with small claims.  I also work with a broker as a loan officer, so I know what a judgement in my favor will do to his credit and to a prelim report on his home.  I was trying to work things out with this person for the last month, but he's just says "talk to my attorney if you don't like what i'm telling you".  My only other question would be if I should contact a court is his area, or can I handle this closer to my home?  The customer and I live 60+ miles away from eachother, but i'm willing to do what I need to.

Thanks again.  It's nice to have someone to turn to for this kind of advice.  

[Mogue]

This is the rule on choice of venue(a fancy word for where you bring the suit) -  you bring the action in one of two places, either where the defendant lives now, or where the cause of action arose.  In this case I would think that the cause of action arose where you signed the notary papers, but if any part of this happened in your own county, then yuou could bring it there.