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Part of my practice is debt collection.  The matter profile I use is under “Debt & Bankruptcy - Debt Collection.”  When setting up the matter, I would like to include the principal judgment, as well as calculate ongoing interest.  I don’t see any way to do this under “debt collection” or basically “pre-judgment” interest.  This would be very helpful for me to glance at an information point and see exactly what amount the defendant debtor (not my client) owes at any given point, as well as use in forms and judgments. This is especially true for FDCPA debt. 

 

It seems this feature may be a thing outside of the US, and on “Post Judgment Debt Collection” but not where I really need it to be.  Can anyone help advise if 1) I’m setting it up incorrectly or 2) confirm this is not a feature that exists (right now?) 

 

Simple case scenario, debtor fails to pay invoice due on 5/1/2024 for the principal amount of $10,000 and agreed to contract interest of 18% APR on default.  Today is 5/20/25, I would like a data point to break out 1) Principal 2) Interest calculated to today + 3) Costs incurred to date.

 

Thanks in advance,

Jonathan  

Hello ​@JLL 

Smokeball released a new Debt Collection matter type last week that should address your concerns. Please create a new Debt Collection matter and check out the updates!

This is great!  I see the new feature under “debt details.”  I’m sure it will be helpful and looking forward to using it in automation!

Following up - it appears that in putting in the “debt details” breakout which includes a line item for interest, we lost some data points previously within “case details.”  Namely, (or at least most importantly”) a “statute of limitations” and “legal interest” section.  Most cases have a need to plead 

Statutory (pre judgment) interest Rate

Pre-judgment Contract rate

and Post-judgment rate

 

depending on the causes of actions.  (IE Breach of contract is count I and Quantum Meruit count II.)   I would be thrilled to have a quick phone call to chat, it’s very close but seems to have lost some functionality it had before in the change.  

Hello ​@JLL 

The interest rates are located on the Debt Details layout (I did just add the “Statutory Int. Rate” field--it should now be visible on your existing matters). I have notified our development team to add the SOL Date field to Case Details.

 

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