Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New York

Re: ''Overseas Business Claim against U.S based Co.''

You can commence a suit to collect the money you are owed. Please free to contact me directly to if I can be of service to you.

Daniel Clement

[email protected]

212-683-9551

Re: ''Overseas Business Claim against U.S based Co.''

The answers to your questions are as follows:

1. U.S. law permits you to recover the unpaid balance. I represent a number of non-U.S. exporters and my experience is that many U.S. purchasers disregard their legal obligations because they don't believe the seller will come after them.

2. Step 1 is to send them a demand letter on a U.S. lawyer's letterhead. This often shakes money loose. If that proves unrewarding, you sue them.

3. You have full access to the U.S. courts and will receive a fair hearing of your claim. The fact that your company is non-U.S. will not affect the outcome; here in New York, litigants come from every corner of the globe and, while not everyone agrees with every outcome, I've never in 17 years heard a complaint that the courts discriminate against foreigners.

4. The cost depends on the likelihood of recovery and the energy that the defendant puts into the defense of the claim. Hotly contested lawsuits are expensive for both sides; the goal is to persuade the defendant that it is worth his while to settle the action rather than to spend lots of money on lawyers and lose in the end anyway. Options for paying your attorney range from straight hourly billing, to contingent fee arrangements to other, more creative, arrangements. It's all a matter of negotiation.

5. It takes about two years to get a trial in New York these days. That may seem like a long time, but it's down from 5 years in the late 1980s. Some cases are resolved by motion long before trial, but that all depends on the facts of the case, and you haven't given me enough facts to assess the likelihood of that type of outcome.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have further questions.

Tom.