LITIGATION
Most accounts should never be sued.
The ones that should, shouldn't wait.
Filing suit is not leverage and it is not a gesture. It is a business decision with a cost, and it either recovers more than it consumes or it doesn’t. We make that call with evidence in hand — and once it’s made, we move.
WHY FILES DISAPPEAR
Forwarding an account is not a strategy.
The common pattern in this industry: an agency works a file until the easy calls stop working, forwards it to an attorney, and effectively stops. Months pass. The creditor hears nothing. Costs accumulate against a claim nobody re-examined. Eventually the file comes back closed, and no one can explain what was tried or why it failed.
That isn't a legal problem. It's a leadership problem — and it's the one this page is about.
WHO RUNS YOUR CASE
We are not a law firm. We are also not a forwarder.
Ask whether we practice law and the answer is no. Ask who runs your file — who investigated it, who built the theory of recovery, who decided it was worth pursuing, who chose the firm, and who answers to you for the result — and the answer is us, on every file, without exception.
OLIVIERI & WEST
Owns the file, the strategy, and the outcome
- Builds the evidentiary record — agreement, invoices, account history, contact log, disputes — before anyone is retained
- Runs the investigation that establishes what can realistically be reached, and what can't
- Develops the theory of recovery and the sequence it should be pursued in
- Applies the readiness tests below and decides whether the matter proceeds at all
- Selects the firm, in the debtor's jurisdiction, and briefs it on a file that is already built
- Sets the standard that firm is measured against, and stops placing files with it when the standard isn't met
- Carries the file from placement through recovery. Counsel may change. The owner does not.
NETWORK COUNSEL
Advises, executes, and appears
- Independently determines whether a claim is viable
- Advises on applicable law, venue, limitations periods, and available remedies
- Prepares and files pleadings and appears on the matter
- Contributes judgment and local knowledge to the approach — the best firms sharpen a strategy rather than receive one
Counsel's legal judgment is their own — we would not want a firm that outsourced it. What is ours is everything around it: the facts, the theory, the decision, the firm, and the standard.
Olivieri & West is a debt recovery firm. We do not practice law and do not direct the professional judgment of counsel. Attorneys in our network are independent practitioners, not employees or agents of Olivieri & West. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.
SUIT READINESS
Seven tests, and one absolute bar.
These are not steps in a sequence. Every file is measured against all of them at once, and the recommendation follows from the whole picture — not from how frustrating the account has been. The first seven are judgment calls. The last one isn't.
DOCUMENTATION
Is there an enforceable agreement and a clean account history?
A claim is only as strong as what can be put in front of a court. Missing terms, unsigned agreements, and gaps in the statement of account are the most common reason viable balances fail.
ECONOMICS
Does the balance justify the cost of proceeding?
Court costs, service, and counsel time are real and they come before recovery. If the arithmetic doesn't clear, suing converts a bad receivable into a larger loss.
REACHABILITY
Has the investigation established something that could actually be reached?
A judgment against someone with nothing recoverable is an expensive piece of paper. This is why investigation comes before litigation rather than after it fails.
VENUE
Is the proper court clear, and is counsel licensed there?
The debtor's actual jurisdiction governs where a matter can be brought. Filing in the wrong venue costs time and credibility and can forfeit the claim entirely.
TIMING
Is the claim within the applicable limitations period?
Limitations periods vary by state and by the nature of the obligation. An expired claim is not pursued — and we will tell you when a balance has reached that point.
DEFENSES
Is there a dispute, offset, or counterclaim that changes the picture?
Disputes get resolved before anything is filed, not discovered in a response. A legitimate offset changes the amount, and sometimes it changes the recommendation.
PRIORITY
Who is already ahead of us?
Prior judgments, existing secured interests, and competing creditors affect what remains available. Being second in line is worth knowing before spending money to get there.
BANKRUPTCY - THE ABSOLUTE BAR
An active filing stops us. It does not close the file.
Bankruptcy protection is real and we respect it completely. Collection activity stops, and it stops immediately — proceeding against a protected debtor is a serious violation, not a technicality. What we don't do is write the balance off and walk away.
Through counsel, the claim is filed and the case is monitored: whether the schedules are accurate, whether assets and transfers were disclosed, whether required payments are actually being made. Where a debtor isn't doing what the filing requires, or where property was left off the record, that is brought to the trustee and to the court through counsel. Bankruptcy protection is genuine, and it is conditioned on candor.
When a file fails a test, the recommendation is not to sue — and we say so in writing, with the reason.
Recommending against litigation is not the same as closing an account. Many files that shouldn't be sued today become suit-ready once documentation is repaired, a dispute is resolved, or an investigation surfaces something that wasn't there before.
COUNSEL STANDARD
We don't place files with contingency counsel.
This isn't a criticism of the lawyers. It's arithmetic about incentives. A firm paid only on what it collects is rewarded for volume: file broadly, move fast on the accounts that resolve themselves, and let the files that need real work sit at the bottom of the stack — because those are worth the least to the firm holding them. That model produces filings. It doesn't reliably produce recovery.
Firms in our network work on hourly and retainer terms rather than contingency, and they are chosen for the quality of their work rather than their willingness to take a file for free. Volume across the network is what makes that standard sustainable.
Paid to litigate it properly
Counsel working on this basis has no reason to hope for a default and no reason to abandon a matter that needs work. The incentive and the objective point the same direction.
Selected, not accepted
Firms enter the network because their work meets a standard, and they stay in it because their results do. We are not assembling the largest list of firms willing to take an assignment.
Briefed on a finished file
Counsel receives a matter that is already investigated and documented. Their time goes to the legal work, which is the only part we can't do ourselves.
COST
You will know what litigation costs before you decide to spend it.
Litigation carries real cost — court costs, service, counsel time — and that cost exists whether or not anyone discusses it up front. Most creditors find out what suing actually costs after they have already committed to it. That is a choice the industry makes, and it isn't ours.
Our recommendation on a file arrives with the economics attached, so the decision to proceed is made against a number rather than a hope.
Estimated before, not invoiced after
The recommendation tells you what proceeding is expected to cost and what it is expected to return. If those two figures don't justify each other, the recommendation says so.
Authorized in writing
Nothing is filed and no matter moves forward without your written approval. There is no version of this where you learn what was spent afterward.
Visible while it's open
What has been spent and what remains anticipated stays in front of you for as long as the matter is active, so the economics never quietly stop making sense.
COUNSEL ACCOUNTABILITY
Every firm in the network is graded on one number.
Litigation carries real cost — court costs, service, counsel time — and that cost exists whether or not anyone discusses it up front. Most creditors find out what suing actually costs after they have already committed to it. That is a choice the industry makes, and it isn't ours.
Our recommendation on a file arrives with the economics attached, so the decision to proceed is made against a number rather than a hope.
Estimated before, not invoiced after
The recommendation tells you what proceeding is expected to cost and what it is expected to return. If those two figures don't justify each other, the recommendation says so.
Authorized in writing
Nothing is filed and no matter moves forward without your written approval. There is no version of this where you learn what was spent afterward.
Visible while it's open
What has been spent and what remains anticipated stays in front of you for as long as the matter is active, so the economics never quietly stop making sense.
INVESTIGATIONS
Most files stall for one reason: nobody actually looked
A balance is not uncollectable because a debtor says so. It is uncollectable when nobody has established what the debtor has, where it sits, and which of it the law can reach.That work is the difference between a file that closes and a file that gets returned to you as "no assets." We do it before the demand goes out, not after litigation fails — because the facts change what we ask for, how we ask, and whether suing is worth anyone's money.
INCOME
Employment, payroll sources, contract and 1099 relationships
BANKING
Institutional relationships and account activity indicators
PROPERTY
Real property, recorded liens, mortgages and encumbrances
ENTITIES
Business filings, officers, registered agents, affiliates
TRANSFERS
Asset movement and the timing that explains it
PRIORITY
Prior judgments, competing creditors, existing garnishments
STANDARDS
The boring part is the part that protects you.
A recovery firm that cuts corners on compliance eventually hands its clients the bill. Ours is built to survive an examination on any given day.
LICENSING
Licensed, registered or bonded as each jurisdiction requires, and current on every renewal. State list available on request.
DOCUMENTATION
Calls recorded. Contacts, promises and disputes logged to the account. The file is the evidence.
DISPUTES
Every dispute answered in writing, within the applicable timeframe, with collection activity handled accordingly.
CLIENT FUNDS
Collections held in a separate trust account and remitted on a published schedule, with a full accounting.