Court Collections

Court Collection Process Overview.

This page will give you a high-level overview of the collection process utilized by CSA for court receivables. Unlike collection companies, who base their collection effort on the dollar amount of each account placed, Court Services Agency works all accounts to the fullest extent needed. CSA realizes that someone with a $200 traffic ticket is more apt to pay the balance in full than a $1,600 probation case and therefore places equal emphasis on them in order to increase the courts "cases closed" and decrease their outstanding fines and costs.

CSA places most of the collection emphasis on phone calls. Phone calls, not letters, collect money. CSA will send out the an initial letter (that notifies the defendant that the court has turned over the account to it's compliance department), but then only uses letters to enhance their phone collection attempts. CSA has found the initial letter and our warrant letter to be the only effective collection type letters. CSA will also send out payment reminder notices or use our automated phone reminder system to help remind defendant's who are making partial payments. This decreases our broken promise rate by more than sixty percent (60%).

In addition to the phone attempts, CSA will make several skip-tracing searches in order to locate a defendant's current phone number and/or address. This includes some preventative maintenance steps such as checking for new addresses BEFORE the 1st letter is ever sent out. This step allows us to maximize the court's revenue right from the outset and cut down on our return mail that comes back undelivered.

CSA has some primary objectives for performing our No Cost Court Collections in this manner. They are:

• Improve and accelerate the cash flow to the court from delinquent cases
• Reduce or eliminate collection budget costs for your court
• Eliminate complaints through good client relations and expedient, responsive service
• Provide tools that streamline work flows to make CSA revenue officers more effective and efficient, thereby enhancing the court's revenue stream
• Increase the number of phone contacts with delinquent defendants via efficient call management

Increasing defendant phone contacts will not only increase cash flow, but accelerate it as well. The increased cash flow positively impacts receivables, reduces caseloads and decreases outstanding bad-debt. Our efficient phone follow-up procedures will ensure that increased phone contacts result in increased compliance and revenue for you.

CSA will absorb all costs associated with the collection of delinquent accounts due the court. The court can add all of our compliance fees to the defendant's balance. CSA only gets paid after the court has received its money PLUS any additional compliance fees due on that case. By eliminating your court's collection costs and improving your collection recovery rate, your court realizes an almost instantaneous increased bottom line.

Our highly experienced judicial enforment staff has the ability to respond immediately to questions or concerns, reducing or eliminating calls to the court. Conversations are handled with the understanding that a defendant should be handled firmly, but always with dignity and respect. CSA is cognizant of our court clients' public image and will uphold that image on each and every phone call handled for them. Our approach results in fewer call backs to the courts and virtually eliminates complaints.

CSA is the premier leader in No Cost Court Collections in Michigan. CSA's satisfied court clients have received a total of more than $10,000,000 in delinquent case revenue without ever paying a penny out of their budget. CSA does not strive to be the biggest judicial service company, just the best in providing revenue enhancement to all eligible courts free of charge. Please call us today at 517-788-9500 to start instantly increasing your court's revenue.