I'm a lawyer. I've written those letters. They're useless. Don't waste your time. 1. If deadbeats have the money and won't pay, the only thing that will mo

I'm a lawyer. I've written those letters. They're useless. Don't waste your time. 1. If deadbeats have the money and won't pay, the only thing that will move them forward is a lawsuit. Yelling "Scary Monsters!" will not budge a normal business executive. They are acting in bad faith. A letter won't change that. You can't bullshit a bullshitter, etc. 2. If they don't have the money, they are either good people or they are bad people. (a) If they are good people they would have said "We don't have the money and here's a payment plan." You personally should make the payment demand and see if they offer monthly payments to pay you off. A lawyer's snarling letter is going to hamper this effort, not help. (b) If they are bad people, the only thing that is going to do you any good is a lawsuit. Your action plan is simple. You either decide to make one last collection effort or you don't. I recommend that you do so. I recommend that you do so on paper. Send a letter with the unpaid invoice. You want this proof so you look good in the litigation, not because they are suddenly going to wake up and pay you. Then you sue. I don't know what the NYC rules are for small claims court, but that's where you go. You don't need a lawyer there. For instance, if they owe you $10,000 but the maximum you can sue for in small claims court is $7,500, sue for $7,500 and take the haircut. You don't have to be afraid of the process. It's simple. "Hey Judge, here's my contract where they promised to pay me. Here's the work I did. Here's where they said they were happy with the work I did. Here are the things I tried to do so they would pay me. I ain't got nuttin' yet. Your Honor, I rest my case." Then the Judge will look at them with a Judge Judy-style look and say, in legalese, "WTF?" And they'll have a chance to explain themselves. No decent lawyer will take on a tiny case like this. No decent lawyer will take on a tiny case like this for the promise of future payment. You're on your own. Here's the blunt truth. Invoices like yours are worth the face value multiplied by the probability of payment. At the moment your probability approaches zero. You don't have something worth $10,000 to you. You, in fact, have a claim for money that is probably worth zero or close to it, by the time you put all of the time and effort into collection. Mentally kiss this money goodbye. Put the minimum amount of effort into collection that you can -- use the model I have described above. Put your effort into doing things better next time. Never put yourself in this position again. There have been endless threads on HN about this. Look for comments by tptacek and patio11, among others. My personal feeling is that as soon as someone owes you about $1,500 or so (or pick your number), the balance of power shifts from the service provider to the customer. Pick a number where you can look at the customer, swear with all the potty-mouth words you know, and walk away. Then never let your accounts receivable get above that number. It's better to not work and not get paid than it is to work and not get paid.