Adding service fee to overdue bills?

[Irene Abbey]

Does anyone know what you can legally tack on in California for bills that are overdue? I've got a really weird situation where the court ordered a litigant to pay for the court reporter as a sanction, and he's taking his sweet time. So it's not my client who's delinquent, even though they set the depo. I've never added a service fee, but it's getting ridiculous. Can I add a service fee of, say, 1.5% per month, from this point forward? Or am I fried because it wasn't included on the original invoice?

Thanks for any help.

[Phil Stillerman]

The way I understand it is if the original bill includes something about late fees, like an additional $5.00 per month, then it's okay to add it in for each subsequent billing.

[Glen Warner]

Hi, Irene.

Have to agree with Phil, here! If the original invoice doesn't include some sort of language about late fees, you can't tack them on after the fact.

I hear Reporter Works has something that will allow you to put something like that on the invoice, and automatically figures it in when you re-bill!

--gdw

[Laurie]

Irene, In order to recover, your terms need to be clearly stated on all signed agreements, invoices or statements. For future just revamp your agreements, invoices or statements to state any interest, late fees, handling fees, collection fees and legal recovery fees are the responsibility of the business or client that you are doing work for. This avoids any problems with due process for the future if you run into this again. You can check the website for the Dept Of Finance in California for the laws that govern in your state as far as what you can recover without those items that have not been clearly stated to your client and what you would be reasonably entitled to.