Threaten to post details of the debt on to Facebook, Twitter, a blog or whatever social networking website they may have. Most of them allow for comment or input from a third party.
(don’t actually do so before checking with your lawyers first)
Embarrassment. A great tool (threat) to use when chasing slow payers. I discussed using this highly effective tactic in two earlier posts … robynne’s childcare centre and did you hear about …. but this one really takes the cake.
The precedent was set back in 2008.
A judge of the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court recently upheld the right of lawyers to serve legally binding court documents and notices by posting them on defendants’ Facebook sites. It was a legal first.
Apparently, the plaintiff applied to the Supreme Court to use Facebook to serve notice of a judgment on two borrowers who had defaulted on a loan. The debt was in the order of $150,000. It was to refinance a mortgage. The defendants didn’t appear in court to defend the action and the plaintiff was granted a default judgment for the amount of the loan and for possession of the house. But for the defendants to be served with the judgement, they had to be found first.
After private investigators and numerous other attempts failed to find the couple, the lawyers identified the Facebook profiles of the defendants. They convinced the court that those profiles did belong to the couple. They also satisfied the court that communication through their Facebook pages was a sufficient means of communicating with the defendants.
So, the precedent is there – set back in 2008. The plaintiff was MKM Capital. more details here … You can quote the case and threaten to post the details on your debtor’s site. (But do double-check with your lawyer first before you really do post anything!)
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