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FINANCE
REASONS FOR COUNTER SUITS AND THE
ADDITIONAL SAFETY NET OF ADAMS, EVENS, & ROSS
COLLECTION REVIEW
BY: STAFF WRITERS
We have spoken in the past about counter suits and the various reasons that they can occur, but this
article will go a bit deeper into how we work to help prevent them. First, it is important to note, that
about 80% of our collections are done in house and no attorney is ever involved. For most agencies,
30% to 35% of the collections will be given in attorney fees for outside counsel. We do not have that
problem because of our in-house counsel that is included in the initial fee; this is one of the ways that
we provide an additional safety net for you.
At any point in time, our company is dealing with
about four hundred active lawsuits and three count-
er suits. Notice, our counter suits account for about
3% rather than the standard 10% of other compa-
nies. This is because we work hard to watch for sit-
uations that may lead to counter suit and advise our
clients on how to avoid them. Sometimes, we can
see them coming from a mile away and those are
generally ones that involve employees with harass-
ment issues or other serious matters. Occasionally,
we will have ones that come across our desk that
should not even be qualified for a counter suit. The
most important piece of advice we can give is to be
aware of the risks of a lawsuit. In almost every situa-
tion, a counter suit comes back because the lawyers
will say they do not owe you and that your lawsuit is
not viable; this is a very common affirmative de-
fense, and generally the first thing that any lawyer
will file, because it is difficult to claim on errors and
omissions.
The most common counter suit that we see is when
there is some frivolous lawsuit and they want you to
pay their attorney’s fee. Our company works hard to
avoid these situations by reviewing any lawsuits at
least twice before sending them to the litigating at-
torney. In our process of reviewing the case, we look
to see if something similar could have happened
in the past and we will recommend you do not sue
in situations that could come back worse for you
than the person you are suing. The worst scenario
is if the counter suit comes because of something
they could have been internally handled, and that
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is where real problems begin because if you answer
the complaint, they have an affirmative defense.
We recommend that the best way to handle any col-
lections problems is to go through an agency first,
rather than a lawyer, because it has less liability. We
have never had a client sued during a collection that
went through our agency, but by going straight to
a lawsuit there is always a risk of counter suit. We
cannot make predictions on counter suits, so it is
always best to avoid putting yourself at risk for one.
One general rule that we follow, and now pass along
to you, is that if you are concerned when you turn a
collection over to us that the debtor is threatening
to sue, unless it is coming from an actual attorney,
the threat is baseless. Vice versa, we have seen situa-
tions where an attorney was already involved before
any threat was made which tipped us off that the
client was preparing to counter suit.
The best advice we can give is to always try and
avoid going to a lawsuit in any collections situation.
Let our agency help you avoid the possibility of a
counter suit, and if you have any further questions
contact Samantha Cole at samantha@aercollections.
com.
Quote 1: About 80% of our collections are done in
house and no attorney is every involved.
Quote 2: Our company works hard to avoid these
situations by reviewing any lawsuits at least twice
before sending them to the litigating attorney.
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