Someone owes your business money and hasn’t paid. Here’s what happens next.
An unpaid invoice is a breach of contract. In Illinois, that gives you a claim for the amount owed, interest, and, if your agreement provides for it, your attorney’s fees. This page explains how we collect it, step by step, and what you need to have ready.
Before we send anything: what we need from you
The contract, purchase order, or terms the customer agreed to (including the fine print on your invoice or website if that’s where your terms live, and any arbitration or venue clause in them). The invoices and a statement of account. Proof of delivery or performance. Any emails or letters where the customer acknowledged the debt or promised to pay, an acknowledgment can establish an account stated and reset the limitations period. The customer’s exact legal name and entity type, which we verify with the Illinois Secretary of State.
Step one: the attorney demand letter
A demand on law firm letterhead states the balance, cites the agreement, sets a deadline (usually ten days), and explains that suit or arbitration follows. For a commercial debtor that intends to stay in business, this is often enough, not because the letter is threatening, but because it makes clear the next step is a filing and the cost of ignoring it goes up. We send it within a few days of intake.
Step two: the lawsuit, or the arbitration demand
If the deadline passes, we file where the contract says. In Illinois court, claims typically include breach of contract, account stated (the customer received the invoices and didn’t object), and, where there’s a note or guaranty, a claim on that instrument. In Cook County, claims up to $10,000 go to small claims; larger claims to the Municipal or Law Division. If the contract requires arbitration, we file the demand with JAMS, AAA, or the named forum instead; the claims are the same, the procedure is faster, and the award is confirmed as a judgment. Most commercial debtors don’t appear, and the matter proceeds to default. If the debtor contests, we litigate it.
Step three: judgment and collection
A judgment is a court order that the debtor owes you a specific amount. It doesn’t collect itself. The tools that do, citations to discover assets, third-party citations to banks and customers who owe the debtor money, wage deductions, judgment liens, are covered on Judgment Enforcement. We start enforcement the week the judgment is entered.
What if the customer is a business that’s closed or an LLC with nothing in it?
We check for a personal guaranty first. Then we look at whether the business transferred assets to insiders or a successor, which can support a fraudulent-transfer or successor-liability claim. And we’re honest with you: some accounts aren’t worth pursuing, and we’ll say so at the evaluation stage rather than after you’ve spent money.
What it costs
Most single-account matters are handled on contingency. For contested litigation or accounts where the documentation is thin, we may propose hourly or hybrid billing, and we’ll tell you before you commit to anything. Pricing