Canadian Lawyer InHouse

31 canadianLawyErmag.com/inhousE august 2014 It's easy to see why Candace Bishoff, general coun- sel director, law, at Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. in Winnipeg, nominated her small in-house legal department for an Innovatio award. They developed a program that collects on otherwise written off bad debt — and gives articling students valuable litigation experience in the process. Working with MTS' collections group and uti- lizing in-house resources, the Delinquent Busi- ness Account Collections Program was developed in 2013. It launched in tandem with a program matching the law department with third year law students from the University of Manitoba who were then selected to assist the in-house lawyer overseeing the collections program. Working to- gether with the business groups, the law school students and supervising lawyer were responsible for taking each delinquent account from the fi rst step of the demand letter through to judgment and — ideally — collection. The partnership was a "win-win" says Bishoff. "We provided real-life litigation experience for those students, and used their services as a cost- effective way to supplement this new program," she explains. It also helped the law department prove its worth to MTS as every dollar collected through the program goes "right to the company's bottom line," Bishoff explains. While no easy feat, succeeding in getting money back where others have failed might not be as diffi cult as one might fi rst assume. "At the outset, there was a lot of frustration as it is near impossible to locate and contact some of the debtors," Stefan Bounket, one of the articling students from the University of Manitoba Law School who helped with the project, says. "How- ever, once you get over that hurdle, it's relatively smooth sailing." For Bounket it meant drafting demand letters and fi ling small claims, working closely with the bankruptcies and collections group to get hands on payment history and copies of agreements. "Some accounts involve some creative thinking as not all have a signed written agreement," he ex- plains. "As I have had very little litigation experi- ence before now, this project made me very aware of the amount of paperwork that is done 'behind the scenes.'" Susanne Dandenault, senior legal counsel and project leader, says after they have located the debtor and the demand letter has been served, they are open to payment arrangements but not all of the customers are willing to pay up. The next step would be to fi le a claim, the majority of which are small claims, and set a hearing date. Optimally, they receive payment before the hearing date but if not, they obtain a judgment fairly easily. After all their work, if no payments are forthcoming, the next steps can be taken to garnish bank accounts or register judgments against properties. Introducing: 'We provided real-life litigation experience for those students, and used their services as a cost effective way to supplement this new program.' rECOVErY PrOGrAM GIVES STUDEnTS VALUE EXPErIEnCE BY MaLLORY HENDRY Stefan Bounket, then articling student, now a fi rst year lawyer with MTS Candace Bishoff, general counsel & director Law MTS Susanne Dandenault, senior legal counsel MTS Sherisse McDuffe, legal assistant MTS catEgory: Litigation Management dEpartmEnt siZE: Small company: Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. tHOMas FRICKE

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