As a potential creditor, you have heard this message time and time again. Do your homework! Prior to extending credit to a new customer make sure to obtain as much information as possible regarding this new customer’s credit history. As a creditors’ rights attorney, I urge you to include within this initial investigation the task of finding out a little about the customer’s present operations. More specifically, find out where this new customer currently banks.
Customer banking information is extremely valuable in the event that the relationship sours down the road, and you are forced to take legal action to collect on an outstanding account. Moreover, in the early stages of the creditor/debtor relationship obtaining such information should be effortless. A new customer who refuses to provide a banking reference should at the very least raise a red flag.
In my experience, a bank attachment is typically the fastest and most successful form of execution upon a judgment. It gets the creditor what they want (cash), and it does so in a relatively quick manner (the bank will have twenty days from the date of service to inform a creditor of any funds that may be available). Of course there are procedural steps that your attorney will need to take in order to receive payment, but those steps can be taken quickly.
So if in your current practice you are not already asking new customers for banking information, begin doing so. For existing customers, I would suggest taking the time to note where current payments are coming from. By expending minimal effort now, you have taken steps that can drastically improve your chances of recovery in the event that the account defaults.
