Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Can Municipalities Benefit From Collection Attorneys And Agencies In Collecting Their Debt?

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / freedigitalphotos.net

Debt collection for municipalities is a lot different than most other non government collection procedures.  The truth is that a municipality, just like a regular business will need to collect on different services or fees associated with the area.  The problem is that a lot of municipalities do not have the funds necessary to hire people full time and that is when a collections law firm can be there to help them. 

Why It Is More Important Now
The federal and state governments have made severe cuts in the past which means that most municipalities have seen their budget cut.  They need to get the cash coming in from parking fees, fines, water bills etc or they may face a dire financial situation.  Defaults also increased as the economy took a turn for the worse making it more important than ever to have a firm that can be successful in collecting debt for them.

Bad Signs
The clue to look at in order to know how bad the payment of those fines and fees are is the amount of time that they have been without a payment.  A payment that is behind over 60 days is thought of as a high risk for non-payment.  If your municipality has a lot of those then you could be in the red for a long time because you still need to pay bills on time.  You may need to consider bonds or other ways to raise revenue.

Best Options

A collections firm is a great option to get money in from unpaid fines and fees because it is cheaper than hiring full time employees and they have more experience to get the job done right.  Another option is to hire the firm to handle not just collections but also billing so that there are fewer delays in the payments altogether.

1 comment:

  1. Unless the collector is using sewer service you should have notice a collector wants to go to court. In Illinois which has exemptions, the bank account would be declared before the judgement goes into effect.
    . Collection attorneys

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