I don't understand why anyone who calls themselves an abstractor can't walk over to a Justice Court or Small Claims Court and fill out the forms, pay the fees, get a trial date and present the case themselves. As a general rule the creditor can file the suit without hiring an attorney in a small claims court. You might run into a jurisdictional problem with an out of state company, but that can be over come. If you debtor is a corporation look to the corporation's home state and you can obtain the registered agent for service of process and have the summons filed and deiivered to that agent. If the owner is an individual you can use the business address for service.

The chance of these people coming to court are small and you can present your evidence (orders, invoices, affidavits, and work product, to the court and move for a default judgment. And in most cases the judge with give you that default judgment. Remember that these courts are generally not courts of record so an automatic appeal will granted if moved for by the judgment debtor. But what do you think the chance of that is when they did not even bother to come to court?

Once that appeal time expires, which differs from state to state, the judgment will be enrolled. You all know about judgments.

After the judgment is enrolled, if the judgment debtor resides or does business in your state, in most states you can call that judgment debtor back to the court for a judgment debtor exam. Most people and businesses don't want that. Also if they are within the courts jurisdiction and they fail to show for the examination the court can hold the judgment debtor in contempt of court and the penalties can be severe,

What do you have to lose other than a few hours work time, but you gain a world of self confidence and you have made a statement to the non payer, to paraphrase the movie Network, "That I'm made as hell and i'm not gonna take it anymore."

These guys can't make a dime without the abstractor. We should all remember that.

One other thing that judgment allows you to do is to go back behind your work and determine who the vendor management companies client was; and then send a certified copy pf the judgment to those clients. I would advise the vendor management that that is your intention first because you may get paid and the vendor management company has to have income in order to pay you.

Remember these are general rules., but each and everyone of you has the knowledge and ability to read you state code books to get a line on your state's rules.

Best wishes. And listen to Kevin. He is right on about having the client post the fee and payment terms on the order. A signature of an officer of a corporation. or LLC, or sole proprietor is also a smart thing to require. It's hard to deny any of that when you are in court. What are they gonna do, claim that they were or are NCM?


James Toney

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