With privacy laws currently in place, I don't think we are able to release client information (even to a collection agency) without written permission. I remember our Vet asking us to sign a form to this effect to protect himself in case we skipped out on him (not that we would do that, but he got burnt once and you know, twice shy).

Does anyone have such a clause in their contracts and if so, would you mind sharing it?

If your contract doesn't contain a clause like this, it probably should.

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Julia

I don't know how I missed this post.

Honestly from my knowledge of the fair debt collection act, if I wanted to, here in the states at least, I could send my client to collection. They signed a contract and defaulted on the terms therefore I have every right to seek further action in order to collect the debt.

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

I think privacy laws and collections laws are a different egg altogether. You absolutely have the right to release information for purposes of debt collections, whether it be to a collection agency, government agency or attorney.

As far as privacy laws, they deal more with releasing information for the purposes of soliciting. They don't have to sign anything giving you permission to release their information. You just have to have given them notice of your privacy laws with instructions of how to opt out of you releasing their private information. That's why you get those booklets from the credit card company telling you what information of yours they will share with affiliates and third parties and then give you an address you can write to to opt out.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

There is no law which states that I can't report someone to the credit bureau for non-payment without their written consent. No law which states that I can't file a civil action without the written consent of the debtor. However, there are laws which clearly state that I cannot release a persons personally identifiable info ( medical records, social security number, account numbers, driver's license number, etc. ) without prior written consent.

Canada and the US have different laws. I am not sure what the laws are in Canada. In the US, you can turn your client over to a collection agency for non-payment. When you do so, you can provide all the necessary information to a collection agency to aid them in collecting on your behalf. This includes social security number, address, phone numbers, date of birth, etc. The client cannot come back at you because they defaulted on the contract. The contract should have a clause in there relating to what may happen if the client is in default of paying.

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Mary Hettwer
Hettwer Virtual Office

Thanks for reviving this thread Dawn, and Julia for starting it (albeit ages ago )
Interesting conversation - though it seems to be the concensus that collections is a fair move if/when an invoice is neglected by the client.

I've only had one situation where we had to consider going after a client for non-payment - she had decided she didn't have to pay a regular invoice based on the fact that she'd paid so many late payment fees over the previous months - like $300 in total late fees should cover her $300 regular invoice. I disagreed - naturally! But in the end it just wasn't worth the energy to pursue her through Dunn and Bradstreet or one of the other firms...we let it go. Now we take a deposit against 6 months regularly paid invoices. It saves a lot of worry and stress.

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