The Man With a Method

I met the Man With a Method when I was living and working in Marlborough, Wiltshire. He was what you might call 'an experienced debtor' - and he had a whole drawer to himself at the Uxbridge County Court to prove it.

The Method Man owed just about everything to just about everyone, but nobody was collecting the money they were owed - not even the utility companies (and they were all there in the drawer at Uxbridge!) - because part of Method Man's method was to lock every single creditor into expensive and long drawn out litigation by filing a Defence and Counterclaim to every single Summons and Writ he received.

I say 'expensive litigation', but the 'expensive' part of the phrase related only to his creditors. The Method Man acted for himself.

Fighting every creditor to the death - and trying to use Magna Carta to do it - was not, however, the most interesting part of Method Man's Method. His 'second string' was provoking a creditor's legal representative into hitting him within the confines of the Court, and then claiming damages for assault.

I have never really lost my temper since I beat a boy outside Ducks Toyshop in Marlborough High Street sometime in the early thirties and felt such a blind rage on the occasion that I frightened myself, but I very nearly lost it with the Method Man in the hall of the Slough County Court. And I very nearly hit him. And I couldn't be sure that I wouldn't hit him the next time we met. So I came up with what I thought was the perfect solution; I passed all the Method Man hearings over to my wife.

Method Man was a biggish sort of chap, and my wife is a smallish sort of woman. No chance, I thought, that this wretched man would be silly enough to try to goad my wife into hitting him and risk looking like a bully as well as a fool.

I was right, he wasn't prepared to take the chance. He just came up with a new Method.

Method Man followed my wife out of the Court and into the streets of Slough shouting 'Liar!' and 'Perjurer'. He pointed at her and yelled. He followed her and yelled. He screamed into her face. He tried to enlist the support of passers-by - who (perhaps best for themselves but unfortunately for my wife) weren't having any of it.

It isn't a long way from Slough County Court to the Railway Station - but it can seem like a very way if you're being followed by a raving lunatic. Halfway there, my wife had had enough. She fled into Marks and Spencer.

Marks and Spencer floorwalkers are very well trained. A small woman dressed by M&S is a customer; a big bloke shouting abuse is a problem. Method Man was removed, and so far as I know, never tried that method again - probably because it didn't work too well.

I heard afterwards from another firm of Solicitors that the Method Man had baited an Articled Clerk into belting him in the chops and was - of course - claiming damages for assault. I explained about 'the Method', and hopefully no harm was done, but I lost touch with the Method Man and his doings after that. The client threw in the towel.

If you are ever tempted to hit a debtor - remember the Method Man. It's cheaper and safer to walk away.

The Man With The Hammer

A couple of weeks ago I was talking about creditors resorting to violence and intimidation in order to collect their money - but violence can be a two-way street.

Some years ago a man armed with a hammer waited for me outside the office. I was lucky -someone saw him, warned me, and called the police - but other people have not been so fortunate. One young woman - a girl really, only sixteen years old and in her first job in a Solicitors office -went out with the Bailiffs on a repossession job 'for experience'. The occupant of the house leaned out of an upstairs window and shot her. She died.

I'm mentioning these things now because a couple of posts ago I was talking about visits to customers. I should have made it clear that whilst visits to commercial customers can be a valuable collection tool, visits to consumer debtors can be very unwise.

In the first place, a visit might be construed as harrassment. More importantly, a visit could well be the straw that broke the camels back for the debtor, who might then resort to violence.

If you have consumer debt, then my advice is that collecting it is best left to professionals who follow a code of good practice. If you are unwilling or unable to employ a professional to do the work for you, then you should make yourself aware of what constitutes 'good practice'.

The Office of Fair Trading has has issued guidance for debt collectors on how to deal fairly with debtors. The guidance is aimed at consumer credit licence holders and applicants for licences - but you can't do better than to read and follow it. You can download Debt Collection Guidance at: http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/cca/debt-collection.

I Was in the Area, So I Thought I'd Drop In...

It's very hard to fob somebody off if they happen to be standing on the doorstep looking as if they expect to be greeted with open arms, so unannounced visits to customers can be a very good way of getting replacements for cheques that have been 'lost in the post' or an explanation as to why the account is overdue - or coming to an arrangement for settlement.

Do go armed with chapter and verse - copies of invoices, statements, delivery notes, and promises of payment (if any).

And do be prepared to deal with complaints and queries sympathetically. Obviously, if complaints or queries relate to only one or two of the invoices outstanding, then you should press for a cheque in settlement of those that are not in issue - but don't press too hard. You can always settle for part payment of the uncontested balance, the remainder to be paid when the complaint or queries have been resolved.

Most importantly - DO do your homework! Contact all the usual sources of information before you visit a defaulting customer - whether unannounced or by appointment. The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, The Individual Insolvency Register, any one or more of the many available debtor registers and/or your credit agency of choice will give you a very good up-to-date overview of your customer's situation.

If your customer is having problems then you are going to have to make a decision as to whether or how you are prepared to continue to trade with them. If you can talk about those problems knowledgeably, and have a proposal ready to present when you see your customer, then you will be in a much stronger position than you would be were you to have to make those decisions immediately off the top of your head, or go away and come back with a decision later on.

The whole point of visiting defaulting customers is to come away with something tangible - full settlement, part payment, or an arrangement for payment by instalments- and something intangible that's usually called 'goodwill'.

Your defaulting customer will likely not want to lose you as a source of supply - and you may not want to lose that particular customer. And times may get better. And memories can be long...

Cups, Lips & Slips

Back again from the deadly decorators - and the deadly heatwave. The house is stone, so it's usually cool in summer - but only if you close it up during the day. As decorators don't paint well in the dark, I wasn't able to do that. Hot outside, and even hotter inside...

Anyway! Twice recently I've had clients call with problems arising from the same (alas quite common!) error. One of them invoiced a legitimate limited company before it was actually registered; the other supplied services to a company that be purported to be limited, but which didn't actually exist. The so called 'Director' of that 'company' has, of course, now vanished without trace...

In both cases, my clients relied on information given by the customer - in the latter case in writing on their own new account opening form (which shows, incidentally, a fake Company Registration number!) - but failed to check the information again Companies House records before supplying goods and services.

In both cases somebody thought that someone else had done the necessary because - again in both cases - there was no written Credit Policy in place to ensure that everyone knew exactly who was responsible to do exactly what.

Not having a written Credit Policy can cost money. In at least one of the two cases I've mentioned here, it's definitely going to cost money. If you don't have a written Credit Policy, you can write one for yourself. Essential points to cover can be found at http://www.metlissbarfield.com/systems.htm.

The 'Alternative' Reality of Ms. Bridget Prentice

Her Majesty's Court Service announced a rise in thirty types of Civil Court fees to be implemented in July.

Justice Minister Bridget Prentice believes that 'charging the true full cost for court process (including, for example, warrants and charging orders) will mean creditors consider carefully whether they are throwing good money after bad, and consider alternatives'.

Ms. Prentice has not been around as long as I have and has manifestly not 'mixed', so to speak, in the same circles, or she would not speak so lightly of people and their alternatives when it comes to money owed. I have known people - albeit not willingly - who would consider a visit from two heavies with baseball bats to be a perfectly reasonable 'alternative' to writing off a debt, however insignificant.

The only 'alternatives' available to people who quite rightly consider grievious bodily harm to be inexcusable are:

1. To come to an arrangement for settlement which may or may not be successful.
2. To issue proceedings and receive the same appalling service for much more money.
3. To bite the bullet and write off the debt.

Go for option one - and don't even think about belting somebody in the chops as payback if you have to settle for option three instead. You could end up paying for your own trial.

Lord Mandelson tells us that the Government is providing real help to business' and I agree that some Government programmes are 'providing real help'. I can't help but think, though, that affordable justice, improved services for creditors, and the appointment of a Justice Minister with some understanding of real life would provide 'real help to business' also.