Most of us know absolutely nothing about the law except what we may happen to see in the movies or on television. In real life we are horrified at the prospect of becoming entangled in an any legal process for fear that it will take over our lives and empty our wallets. We are so paralyzed by legal matters that we are often willing to pay someone thousands of dollars to have the assurance that everything is under control.
The truth is that much of the legal machinery you need to know about is understandable, especially as it relates to Small Claims Court. Making it understandable to you, I hope, will embolden you to initiate a claim against those persons who owe you a fee or debt, that you are aching to collect, and until now, didn’t know how to go about doing legally. My story may be particularly familiar if you are a small business person like myself. If you are not, it makes no difference because the principles of getting your money are exactly the same.
At the beginning of clinical studies at Temple University Dental School, 31 years ago, Doctor Harold Lantz, Professor of Removable Dental Prosthetics (dentures), began his initial lecture with perhaps the least understood, but most prophetic words pertaining to my career in dentistry. "Boys," he began in his most pronounced Pennsylvania Dutch accent, "the first and most important lesson you must learn in making dentures is first get the gelt." Many of the Jewish students roared with laughter, for the good doctor had used the Yiddish word for money. These words, spoken in his not-often-heard accent, remained indelibly in my mind.
Unfortunately, the doctor’s warning to "first get the gelt" turned out to be the sum and substance of the principles of practice management offered in my dental school way back then.
I became a specialist in orthodontics in 1973. As such, my services are contracted for, and payment plans are structured to pay the fee with an initial payment followed by eighteen to twenty-four monthly payments. This arrangement is unique among the various branches of dentistry and medicine, which often require immediate payment, or the commitment of a third party payer, for services rendered. In 1976 I first opened the doors to my office notwithstanding my abysmal lack of business knowledge. What I lacked in business acumen I made up for in dedication to work and devotion to my patients.
Guided then only by lofty principles, I delegated the responsibility of fee collection to the "office manager", whose skills in such matters were often learned on the job. Computers were rarely heard of and, like most professionals, I kept track of patient accounts by using handwritten ledger cards, as is often still done by many professionals today. Painfully I learned such a system does not permit an instantaneous global view of who owes what and for how long they have been owing it. Beside which, devoted doctors in general are notorious for being bad businessmen -- this is no myth.
Some professionals are "laid back" about patients or clients who owe them money for services rendered. I was one of them for the first five years of my practice. My fee for service contract was far more elementary than its present successor. I lacked the experience and the necessary management skills to realize that collection problems were becoming a reality in my practice. Fortunately, patients as a rule paid their bills. As my practice grew, I began to realize that overdue accounts receivable problems were taking hold. The problems seemed to grow on the "fringes" of the practice, in the periphery of my vision, so to speak. When collection problems take hold they are like algae in an hobbyist's aquarium, barely noticeable until you look carefully and observe they are colonizing the whole tank. I casually named the collection problem patients the "bads," not yet realizing what lay ahead. A decade would pass before I learned that Experian (formerly TRW), one of the most well-known, revered (and often feared) credit unions, refers to its clients that have an unsound credit history by the same term.