Debt collection in Germany
Part of everyday business: No payment by the customer.
In cross border business creditor and debtor are in different countries. A German debtor could trust that the foreign creditor has difficulties collecting the claim in Germany. If a reminder was not successful: How to proceed best ?
Stronger position with a lawyer
You might have the idea to hire a debt collection agency.
Is it a good choice?
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Competences of agencies end with an appeal against the payment order.
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Agencies can not provide legal advice and representation like an attorney .
In contrast to agencies, lawyers can conduct the proceedings also in court.
If the debtor refuses to pay - and this is to be assumed as a rule in international cases - the case must be handed over to a lawyer, which leads to increased administrative effort, higher costs and ultimately to a higher expenditure of time.
Our advice: Engage an attorney straightaway.
THORN Law firm in a debt collection case
When we receive a mandate , we develop the best strategy for debt collection with different steps.
Pre-litigation
We usually spend a significant amount of time working cases during the pre-litigation state to try and settle it fairly without having to file a lawsuit.
Lawyers often pay less attention to out-of-court and pre-trial matters.
Active telephone debt collection, what we do, is is rarely the case with other law firms. We act quite differently here, because in the out-of-court area there is still the possibility to avoid court proceedings in the interest of our client.
Here, we have another decisive advantage: As a law firm, we create a much higher sense of urgency among debtors, because they have to assume that we will quickly and consistently pursue our client's goal in court if they do not pay straight away.
We are able to resolve many claims in this way.
Letter of demand
The debt collection process starts by sending the debtor a legally binding reminder and then making a phone call.
Our first goal is to give the debtor the opportunity to voluntarily take care of the debt. When the debtor talks to us, we make appropriate payment arrangements and offer discounted settlement or payment arrangements if the cooperative financial communication proves an inability to fully settle the debt.
Filing a law suit at all courts in Germany
If the debtor does not communicate with us or refuses to pay voluntarily, we file very quickly a lawsuit against the debtor in consultation with our client.
We represent our clients before all courts in Germany in the proceedings and supervise also the enforcement of the judgment.
Defending Slovenian companies all courts in Germany
Of course, we also represent Slovenian companies that have been sued before a German court.
Depending on the moment of our engagement, we also handle all out-of-court negotiations for our clients.
We personally represent our clients before all German Regional Courts and Higher Regional Courts, all Labour Courts and Regional Labour Courts and the Federal Labour Court.
How to get started?
If your company wants to claim an outstanding debt or has been sued, we need some information about the claim, your company and the debtor or creditor, to give you a first advise how to proceed best.
With a form all informations can be provided very easily. You can download suitable forms at the link below.
But, of course, you can also contact us by telephone.