I hired a nation wide debt collection agency to collect for a judgement three months ago. I paid $3,000 upfront for court paperwork costs along with a 25% / 75% split on all monies collected (I get 75 they get 25). After giving the startup payment it has been extremely difficult to get a status update from them. Once per month I send an email and ask for an update. I receive no response and seven days later I call them day after day until an attorney in their legal department sends me a very vague email that says something like, "we are checking for bank accounts." The skip trace report shows that the company and company owner have assets in the form of vehicles and the company as well as the company owner are on the judgement (both are in play). The debt collection company refuses to put a lien on the assets saying they want to go after bank accounts... is this expected behavior? The value of the cars, when sold at auction would cover at least 75% of the judgement so why not take them? I'm new to the debt collection world and I feel like I'm being taken for a ride.