“I Can’t Reach Them, and the Bills Are Piling Up”: What to Do When a Client Vanishes Without Paying

By Jesse David Eisenberg, Esq. | JDE Law Firm, PLLC

You provided the service. You sent the invoice. You followed up — once, twice, five times.

Now your emails bounce. Your texts are ignored. Calls go to voicemail. The client has vanished.

What now?

Good News: You Don’t Need Their Permission to Get Paid

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need their cooperation to recover what you’re owed.

In New York and New Jersey, once you’ve earned your fee — and they’ve accepted the benefit — you can file a lawsuit, even if they’ve completely cut off communication.

That means no more waiting. You can start using legal tools to chase them down, even without a single response.

Here’s What We Do When the Other Side Ghosts

• File suit and serve them — fast. If they hide, we use process servers, skip tracing, and court orders to find them.
• Get a default judgment if they don’t answer.
• Subpoena banks, clients, or vendors to uncover income sources and account info.
• Freeze accounts, garnish wages, and seize funds — even if they won’t talk to you again.

Stop Waiting. Start Acting.

They’re hoping you’ll give up. They want your file to stay buried. But if you act now, you can flip the power dynamic completely.

📌 Quick tip: Ghosting can be used as evidence of intent to dodge payment. Judges don’t like it — and it can work in your favor.

The Clock Is Ticking

• The longer you wait, the harder they are to find
• Statutes of limitation in NY/NJ can run out faster than you think (3–6 years)
• Assets can disappear, dissolve, or move out of state

We’ll Help You Chase — And Collect

At JDE Law Firm, we don’t just file paperwork. We track, pressure, and collect — with tactics built for business clients who don’t have time to waste.

📞 Ready to act? Let’s talk before another payment goes unpaid.
www.jdelaw.nyc | NY: 718-966-0877 | NJ: 732-490-7120

My business is to protect your business.