The judgment collection industry has existed for as long as civil courts have been awarding monetary awards. But the way judgment creditors have gone about collecting has changed considerably in recent years. The principles remain pretty much the same, but the practices have been modified to take advantage of the digital transformation.
This is to say that collection agencies like Judgment Collectors now rely heavily on technology to do what they do. Today’s technology has made judgment collection a vastly different enterprise compared to what it was just 30 years ago. Thanks to the digital transformation, judgment collectors are more efficient and more effective.
More Than Digitizing Documents
To the average person on the street, digital transformation is little more than digitizing documents. But what is now known as THE Digital Transformation is so much more. The digital transformation is a broader concept that entails replacing analog processes and procedures with digital technologies.
In the old days, business owners would keep contact information on a desktop rolodex. Today that same information is stored in the cloud. As late as the 1990s, a phone call was the most direct way to contact somebody. Today’s preferred methods are email and social media. It is all about digital technology and how it makes life more convenient, efficient, and productive.
Its Impact on Judgment Collections
With a basic understanding of the digital transformation, it’s time to discuss how this transformation has impacted judgment collections. The remainder of this post is written under the assumption that most judgment debtors are unwilling or unable to agree to monthly installments. This forces judgment creditors to take more aggressive actions, like garnishing wages and seizing assets.
Here are the digital transformation’s biggest impacts:
1. Real Time Data Access
Organizations like Judgment Collectors rely on a combination of proprietary databases and public records to track down debtors and their assets. That much has not changed in decades. The substantial difference in the 2020s is the ability to get data in real time. The information debt collectors rely on is more likely to be up to date. They spend less time chasing dead leads and more time tracking down assets and debtors.
2. A Larger Number of Resources
As more organizations have embraced the digital transformation, they have also digitized their data and made it available online. Granted, not all that data is publicly available, but what cannot be found publicly can usually be found in proprietary databases debt collectors pay for.
3. Online Public Records
Speaking of public records, most are now available online thanks to states and municipalities embracing the digital transformation. A judgment collector searching property records no longer needs to go down to the county clerk’s office to search through dozens of filing cabinets. Property transactions are easily searchable in a web browser. Likewise for arrest records, death notices, probate notices, etc.
4. The Introduction of Social Media
In terms of unsecured, freely available information, nothing compares to the cornucopia that is social media. To their own detriment, social media users put far too much of their lives online in the search for likes and followers. Social media has become an information boon to debt collectors and skip tracers capable of gleaning every clue a debtor leaves behind on Facebook, Instagram, and the rest of them.
There is little doubt that the digital transformation has had a profound impact on how judgments are collected. Thanks to digital technologies, the tide is beginning to turn in favor of judgment creditors. Perhaps we are not far from the day when the majority of judgments are actually collected.
