Judgment and Fee Collection
At Smith & Associates NY Law Firm Group, our New York judgment and fee collection lawyers are skilled, aggressive advocates for our clients. With more than seven decades of collective commercial litigation experience, we are highly knowledgeable in the tactics that debtors use to try to hide assets and prevent recovery. The pursuit of your money is our business. To schedule a confidential initial consultation with a top-rated New York judgment collection attorney, please contact our New York City law office today.
American Association for Justice
NYSTLA
AV Preeminent — Martindale-Hubbell
Collecting judgments and recovering fees can be difficult and time-consuming. Researchers estimate that a shocking 75 percent of judgments go uncollected. At Smith & Associates NY Law Firm Group, we have helped clients recover tens of millions of dollars in unpaid judgments, legal fees, commissions, invoices, notes, and other debts. Representing lawyers, law firms, businesses, institutions, and individuals, our legal team can help you overcome obstacles and recover your money. Among other types of cases, our New York judgment and fee collection attorneys have experience handling:
Sadly, obtaining a judgment is often not enough to recover money. Our New York collection lawyers will help you enforce a judgment—focusing on developing a strategy to secure the money that you are owed. We use a wide variety of techniques and offer guidance that is tailored to our clients' unique needs.
We have been pursuing the recovery of legal fees for decades and are familiar with all of the defenses clients raise to justify non-payment, especially the unreasonableness of hourly charges. Our long experience in litigation allows us to appreciate what our fellow attorneys must spend in their own practices and inspires us to pursue their claims vigorously.
Independent commissioned sales representatives have a special place in New York law. They are statutorily entitled to double damages plus attorneys fees when they have been wrongfully deprived of their commissions. We are familiar with the legal intricacies relating to the representation of sales-people. We have represented showrooms and sales-people and regularly use the benefits of Labor Law 191-c to assist our clients in recovering commissions together with attorneys fees.
New York law has special provisions to expedite lawsuits to collect on promissory notes and guarantees. We regularly use CPLR 3213 to obtain accelerated results for our clients. There are also legal techniques under both New York law and the Uniform Commercial Code to speed collection of invoices and other debts, which we utilize to avoid delay.
A fraudulent conveyance is an unlawful attempt to avoid paying a debt by transferring money or assets to another individual or another entity. We will investigate transfers of property and help you recover these improper transfers from any third parties. If you believe that a debtor is attempting to avoid collection via fraudulent conveyances or concealment of assets, our New York law firm can help protect your financial interests.
If you entered a judgment in another jurisdiction—whether it is in a separate state or in another country—we can help you enforce collection in New York. If you have any questions about the domestication of out-of-state judgments or international judgments, we can help.
With a deep understanding of the law and a relentless commitment to protecting the financial interests of our clients, our full-time, on-staff investigative team is ready to help you locate assets and collect your money. When you reach out to our New York City law office, you will have an opportunity to consult with a lawyer who is prepared to:
Highly skilled in uncovering assets, our on-staff investigative team utilizes a combination of investigative research and digital tools, guided by decades of experience. We analyze and synthesize information from diverse public and private sources including financial records, property transfer records, media, and proprietary databases, and work closely with the New York City Marshals and New York State Sheriffs offices.
You deserve personalized representation from an experienced judgment and fee collection lawyer, who is prepared to devote the time, resources, and attention to detail needed to effectively handle your case. Our experience inside and outside the courtroom maximizes your recovery.
We realize that hourly fees for attorneys can become very expensive very quickly and we strive whenever possible to use a contingency or modified contingency platform for these cases. Our clients appreciate that our interests are fully aligned with theirs. We are not billing them on an hourly basis. The fees we earn are dependent on the recovery not upon the hours spent.
You must collect a judgment before the statute of limitations expires. Under New York law (NY CPLR section 211(b)), the prevailing party is presumed to have been paid in full "after the expiration of 20 years from the time when the party recovering it was first entitled to enforce it." If you fail to act within the 20-year statutory deadline, your legal right to recover the judgment will expire. Although 20 years is a significant amount of time, it often becomes more challenging to collect a judgment over time—especially if you are attempting to recover from a corporate entity or other organization.
When a Judgment Debtor does not pay a judgment, the party that is owed money—the "Judgment Creditor"—must find a way to collect. Unfortunately, New York courts are not going to take care of this for you. To make matters even more challenging, Judgment Debtors may try to conceal money and assets to avoid paying a judgment. There are a number of different tools available to help find out if a Judgment Debtor is hiding money, including locating bank and investment accounts, going through land records to look for property ownership, reviewing past transactions, and issuing an information subpoena.
An information subpoena is a valuable judgment enforcement and debt collection tool. It is an official legal document that orders the Judgment Debtor to answer certain specific questions about their money or property. If you have any questions about using an information subpoena to find out more about a Judgment Debtor's assets, contact an experienced New York fee and judgment collection lawyer for help.
A fraudulent conveyance is an unlawful attempt to avoid paying a debt or satisfying a judgment. In most cases, it involves the illegitimate transfer of money or property to a usually trusted third party in an effort to try to keep the assets away from collection. If a fraudulent conveyance has occurred, you can take action to enforce a judgment or collect on a debt directly from the third party.
It might make sense to settle a judgment. For example, if a debtor is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, it may be sensible to settle a judgment for less than full value now, as there is a risk it could become uncollectible in the future. Before considering settling a judgment for less, you should consult with an experienced New York judgment and fee collection attorney who can help you assess the benefits and risks.
At Smith & Associates NY Law Firm Group, our New York judgment and fee collection lawyers are relentless advocates for a wide range of different clients, including attorneys and law firms, financial services companies, individual, corporate and institutional clients, fashion showrooms, manufacturers, and restaurant workers. If you have questions about judgment enforcement or fee collection, we are available to offer assistance. To set up a completely private case evaluation, please contact us today. With an office in Manhattan, we represent clients throughout New York.
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