One of the ways that a creditor can establish liability against a customer in court is based upon a cause of action in a complaint known as an Account Stated. What that cause of action means is that a customer has been billed for a reasonable period of time, and they have received and retained, without objection, the invoices that the creditor has sent to them seeking payment such that as a matter of law, liability on an Account Stated cause of action arises.
After an initial invoice is sent to a customer, and thirty days, or whatever the terms of payment are, expire without payment having been made, the creditor must take a further step. It is then very important for creditors to follow up at least once per month, with an additional invoice, or a statement of account before the unpaid debt is referred to an attorney for collections. It is important in court to be able to establish that at least three or four months of invoices or statements of account were sent to the customer without any objection having arisen. There is ample case law in New York law establishing the principle that liability arises as a matter of law from a failure to object to invoices that have been received and retained.
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