Following up isn't a legal strategy - it's patience with a deadline.
The Aged Receivables Assessment is.
A one-time legal read for businesses with overdue accounts that've moved beyond the usual reminders, calls and follow-ups.
We'll review your priority overdue accounts and tell you straight: what might be worth more energy, what may be better resolved, what's better left alone, and what happens next for each one.
Where a formal letter is the appropriate next step, we'll handle that for you.
You've sent reminders.
You've been patient.
And probably nice
(Nice is ok).
Someone's tried calling from a private number, just to see if it gets picked up.
Yet the same names appear on the debtor ledger again. Month after month.
Eventually, the situation moves from
"Let's try again" to
"What do we do now?"
What your
Aged Receivables Assessment
includes
Legal assessment
Up to 10 priority debtor accounts, reviewed against the history behind each one. We'll identify relevant issues, risks and considerations affecting the recommended next step.
Some of these may not be worth your time. We'll say so.
Not every account deserves the same amount of your time and attention. We'll help identify which matters require action and which ones are quietly costing you more to chase than to write off.
One answer per account.
For each account, we'll provide practical guidance on the appropriate pathway — whether that's negotiation, formal escalation or no further action.
Letters of demand. Done.
Where a Letter of Demand is the appropriate next step, we'll prepare and send it on your behalf within the scope of the assessment.
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For your high priority account - the next step, included.
If it needs a payment plan proposal, we draft it. If it needs to go to court, we prepare the court form for you, at no extra cost. Where required, additional tailored correspondence or further legal work on your other accounts is scoped separately.
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Have more than 10 accounts to review? Let us know in your enquiry — we'll scope it for you.
Your debtor ledger shouldn't become a monthly reminder of unfinished business.
A second set of eyes
Your Accounts already knows the numbers (well). They know:
Who owes money; How much is outstanding; How long the account has been overdue; How many reminders have been sent.
If that's you, you know the ledger better than anyone. You've flagged the same accounts in every monthly meeting. And you'd love to tell the client what happens next — but the legal call belongs to someone else.
What you need is the legal perspective to assess:
Is this worth pursuing? Is there a dispute hiding underneath this invoice? Should we negotiate?
Is formal escalation the right next step?
That's where the Aged Receivables Assessment comes in.
When Accounts has done everything except give up
​By the time an account reaches this stage, it's rarely a standard 30 days overdue.
It's been sitting there for months. Reminders have gone out. The story behind why it hasn't been paid has had time to change.
If it's your business — you're not just managing a ledger. You're the one who has to decide whether to keep chasing, let it go, or do something about it. That's a harder call when it's your own money and your own customer relationship on the line.​
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The Aged Receivables Assessment answers those questions. Which accounts are ready for formal escalation. Which ones need a more tailored conversation. Which ones have a dispute hiding underneath. And which ones simply aren't worth the time, money or energy.
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We help close the loop.
I've made this exact call hundreds of times.
Harriet Rickard, Principal Lawyer
Before Debt Set Legal, I spent years as a commercial litigation lawyer — with a focus on contractual disputes. I also helped firms work through their own aged receivables. (Yes, even law firms have overdue invoices.)
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I loved it. The harder an account looked to recover, the more interesting the problem became. But that never meant giving up on it immediately. It meant working the process as favourably as it could be worked.
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What I noticed, again and again, was the same moment of hesitation. The reminders had gone out. The calls had been made. Everyone had been patient — sometimes too patient. And then someone had to make a call: keep going, let it go, or escalate.
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Most people making that call weren't lawyers. They were doing their best with the information in front of them — which usually isn't enough to know whether a debtor was genuinely a lost cause, quietly hoping to be forgotten, or one firm letter away from paying.
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That gap is where businesses lose the most money.
That's the skill I built the Aged Receivables Assessment around. Knowing which accounts are worth more energy, and exactly how.​​
