Before we decide how to pursue a file — and often before we decide whether to accept it — we build a picture of what the debtor actually has. That picture drives everything that follows.
What we look for
Real property
County records show what the debtor owns, what is recorded against it, and roughly what equity might exist behind the existing encumbrances. A debtor with an unencumbered commercial building is a very different prospect from one whose only property carries two mortgages and a tax lien. Property also gives us somewhere to record an abstract the moment a judgment is entered.
Bank accounts
A levy is only as good as the account number. Returned checks, prior wire instructions, the credit application, and payments the debtor made to you in better times are all sources. Creditors are often sitting on this information without realizing it, which is why we ask for the complete payment history rather than just the outstanding invoices.
Accounts receivable
An operating business that owes you money is usually owed money by someone else. Those receivables can be garnished. For a debtor still trading, this is frequently the fastest route to actual cash — and it gets the debtor's attention immediately, because their customers find out.
UCC filings
A UCC search shows who else has a security interest in the debtor's assets and, just as importantly, in what order. A debtor whose entire inventory and equipment are already pledged to a bank is a poor target for a keeper, and knowing that early saves everyone the cost of finding out the hard way.
Vehicles, vessels, and equipment
Titled assets are locatable and seizable. They are rarely worth the cost of seizure on their own, but they matter for leverage — a debtor who needs a specific truck to keep operating will often find money quickly.
Related entities
This is the one that most often changes a case. Debtors under pressure transfer assets to affiliates, successor entities, family members, or newly formed companies with a similar name and the same address. Where the pattern is clear, alter ego and fraudulent transfer claims can reach those assets — but building that claim requires documenting the transfers, which is far easier close in time than three years later.
What it means for strategy
The investigation usually resolves the file into one of three shapes:
- Assets are visible and reachable. File, move to judgment efficiently, enforce against the identified target. Often the fastest recoveries.
- Assets exist but are encumbered or hidden. The work shifts toward debtor examinations, third-party discovery, and potentially fraudulent transfer claims. Slower, but frequently productive.
- Nothing findable. We tell you, and we decline the file or return it. Neither of us benefits from a judgment against an empty entity.
Why it happens before suit, not after
Many creditors sue first and investigate only after a judgment fails to produce payment. That order wastes the best window. Pre-suit investigation determines whether the claim is worth filing at all, identifies whether a provisional remedy such as a writ of attachment is available, and — critically — establishes what the debtor's asset picture looked like before they knew litigation was coming. If assets move afterward, that earlier snapshot becomes evidence.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and it describes a fictional firm on a demonstration website. Every claim turns on its own facts.