Re: Doing Collection Work

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I'll give you my experience. When I was in law school and
for the first few months of being a lawyer, I did some
collection work for a small firm. It's a tough way to make a
living. You need very high caseload to make money, because
typically the client will pay a contingent fee. Since most
Defendants are judgment-proof (assuming you can even find
them), you will only be paid for a small percentage of your
cases. And with these, the collection process is unpleasant -
you will have to threaten the Defendants, drag them into
court, etc. Basically, you have to be a good a#%&*^e.

My guess is that if you can find a client whose customers
typically have assets, collection law could be worthwhile.
For example, by definition construction company customers
own real estate - an asset that can be attached (subject to
local homestead rules, of course). Auto mechanics could be
good clients, because you could attach and repossess
Defendant vehicles (as allowed in your jurisdiction). Once
again, though, an unpleasant way to make a living.

The real benefit to collection work is that you can develop
a relationship with a business client who hopefully will
give you other work. So it can be a good loss leader. The
firm I worked for mostly did collection work for a few
orthopedic doctors. Aside from using the firm for their
personal legal matters, they would refer personal injury
clients. My old boss retained these clients through family
relationships. It's a lot easier to make it in this business
when you're from a locally prominent family who eat, drink,
and socialize with other locally prominent families.
Newcomers like most of us need to network and develop our
contacts.

On 12/02/06, Richard wrote:
> I agree with the general sentiment that serving consumer
> clients sucks.
>
> However, serving business clients is another matter. You
> can get recurring business from them and they pay their
> bills. That said, has anybody here had any luck doing
> collection work for banks, cc companies, etc? If so, how
> do you get these clients?