The threshold at 100,000 kr.

A line runs through Danish debt collection, and it sits at 100,000. kr.

Below the threshold, a claim can be pursued through the simplified debt collection procedure. A payment order is filed with the bailiff’s court, it is served on the debtor, and if he raises no objection, the order is endorsed by the court. That endorsement is an enforceable instrument — it works like a judgment. No trial, no oral hearing, and no requirement that a lawyer conduct the case.

It is a sound arrangement. It is fast, it is cheap, and it is written for precisely the situation that occurs most often: the debtor does not disagree, he simply does not pay.

What happens above the threshold

Above 100,000, kr. that route does not exist. The claim then has to be brought as an ordinary civil action: a writ of summons has to be issued, the case has to be prepared, and a lawyer has to be on it.

It is not harder law. The case is often the same one — same invoice, same debtor, same silence. But the procedure is a different one, and it calls for a different kind of house.

And this is where something unfortunate happens, which has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with how the industry is built: most collection agencies are set up to run the easy route. They have case handlers, not lawyers. And once the claim crosses 100,000, kr. they no longer have a product.

Then one of two things follows. Either the case is left sitting — “we are keeping an eye on it” — until it is three years old and has lapsed. Or it is handed over to an external lawyer, who has to be brought up to speed on it from scratch and will bill for that.

Note which cases this hits. Not the small ones. The ones where most is at stake.

The threshold is not a ceiling on your claims

It is worth saying plainly, because the assumption is widespread: 100,000 kr. is not a ceiling on what can be recovered. It is a ceiling on which procedure is available.

A claim of 400,000 kr. is every bit as recoverable as a claim of 40,000. kr. It merely requires a writ of summons instead of a payment order — and someone who can draft it.

Note also that the threshold attaches to the claim, not to the invoice. If the same debtor has three overdue invoices of 45,000 kr. each, that is not three small cases. It is one claim of 135,000, kr. and it sits above the threshold.

The decision that is actually being taken

When a large claim is not pursued, the decision is rarely taken. It is left untaken.

Nobody records in a set of minutes that 340,000 kr. is being given up. The case is simply never prioritised, because the route it requires lies outside what the provider is able to do. And a case that is not prioritised becomes time-barred at exactly the same moment as a case that has been actively abandoned.

The difference between the two is that one of them is a decision. The other is a habit.

What you should ask

Ask your collection provider one thing: what happens to the case if the claim is 250,000 kr.?

The answer tells you everything about the house. Either they run it — with their own lawyers, in the same case and the same system. Or they hand it over. And a case that is handed over is a case that starts from the beginning.