Creditor Rights

From time to time, there are legitimate circumstances when your debtor is incapable of paying all or a restructured part of the debt; however, more often the lack of payment is the result of the debtor’s purposeful decisions to either evade paying creditors or to redirect purportedly limited resources to causes of the debtor’s own choosing that somehow do not seem to involve you. That reality has never sat very well with the Boyce lawyers. That’s why we are committed to you to provide efficient and persistent efforts to recover either the money owed to you or the collateral that might secure the money owed to you.

If you are still in the workout phase with your debtor, we can help steer that effort while avoiding, as best as possible, the risk of preferential transfer claims that might arise later. Our workout skills include the mandatory mediation effort that is often required in most agricultural loan situations under the South Dakota State Farm Mediation Act, which may become more prevalent as the agriculture economy softens.

When you are convinced that court action is needed, we have the necessary experience in either state court or in the bankruptcy court. In state court, our lawyers know the ropes and the correct approach to self-help repossession, claim and delivery (replevin) actions, lien foreclosures, and post-judgment collection techniques, including debtors’ exams and third-party garnishment. When it comes to consumer indebtedness, our lawyers will collect the indebtedness consistent with the FDCPA.

If your debtor has filed for bankruptcy protection, we can help with the simple techniques such as relief from the stay or reaffirmation of the debt, but our lawyers will also show the skill necessary to reach a feasible and viable plan that is best under the circumstances in the formal plan confirmation process within Chapter 11 or Chapter 12. If the debtor-in-possession or bankruptcy trustee has sued you in a Chapter 5 action to disgorge a payment or property that the debtor handed-over to you before it declared bankruptcy, we can help you hold on to as much of that as possible.