I would like to know the procedure for recovering a commercial claim.

The situation you have described concerns a monetary claim that arose in the course of a commercial act (delivery of goods) with a business counterpart, so it constitutes a commercial claim under Articles 46 and 64 of the Commercial Act.

Therefore, as in your case, outstanding receivables arising from deliveries and credit transactions between business operators are a representative example of a commercial claim.

To recover a commercial claim, you first send a certified content-proof mail in order to clearly notify the business counterpart of the existence of the claim and the fact that repayment has been requested.

At this stage, it carries greater legal effect than a mere verbal demand, and it is also used in a later lawsuit as evidence of the interruption of prescription showing that “performance of the debt was demanded.”

If the debtor continues not to pay, you may apply to the court for a payment order.

A payment order proceeds on the basis of documents alone, and if the other party does not object, it becomes final as an enforcement title (a document that permits compulsory execution).

Because it costs little in expense and time, it is a procedure widely used in the recovery of commercial claims.

However, if the debtor objects to the payment order or the amount of the claim is in dispute, you must proceed by way of a civil lawsuit.

At this point, if you submit as evidence tax invoices, transaction statements, invoices, deposit records, text messages, emails, and the like, you can prove the existence of the claim.

In the case of commercial claims, the burden of proof is sometimes eased under the Commercial Act, so there is a sufficient possibility of making a claim even without a written contract.

The extinctive prescription for most commercial claims is five years, so in order to keep outstanding receivables from being left unaddressed for a long time, you must interrupt the prescription before it is completed through the sending of certified content-proof mail, the filing of a lawsuit, provisional attachment, and the like.