As of November 2026, TSI's legal recovery service sends accounts that other collection steps haven't resolved to vetted collection law firms in the customer's home state. You approve every suit in writing first. TSI selects, monitors and audits the firms, checks the documents before placement, and reports every firm's activity back to you.
Results vary by portfolio, including account age, balance and type, and by client program.
- Your written approval
- Documents checked: ledger, contract, chain of title
- Firm reviews, writes and tries to settle
- Suit filed only where it makes sense
- Judgment
- Post-judgment steps, scrubbed again
- Monthly call and complaint reviewDone
- Annual auditPassed
- Quarterly risk scoreLow
Got a letter or call from TSI about your own account? Go to the Consumer Support Hub or make a payment.
What happens to these accounts today
For many creditors, the honest answer is nothing. An account with a real balance, a known employer and a customer who won't engage sits in a third-party agency's inventory until it's recalled or sold for cents.
The alternative is managing law firms yourself. Each firm is a separate contract, a separate audit, a separate data feed and a separate set of state rules. One firm files on an account with a missing ledger, or past the statute of limitations, and your company's name is on the complaint.
Legal recovery works when someone owns the oversight. That's the job TSI takes on.
What's included
A vetted network of collection firms
TSI contracts with state-level law firms that specialize in collection work and resolve accounts before suit where they can. Accounts go to a firm where the customer lives.
Your approval on every suit
No account is referred for suit without your written authorization. You see the account summary, the balance and the supporting documents before you decide.
Document checks before placement
The documents that support the balance travel with the account, such as the contract or application, the transaction history and the final statements before charge-off.
Scrubs at every legal step
Bankruptcy, deceased, statute-of-limitations and military-status checks run at placement, before filing, at judgment and before any garnishment or levy.
Firm oversight you can show an auditor
TSI monitors firms' calls and complaints every month, audits each firm every year and scores firm risk every quarter. Findings come with deadlines to fix them.
Reporting on every firm
You see each firm's activity on your accounts, from letters to filing and judgment, along with its audit findings and risk score.
How it runs
Identify candidates
Accounts are usually worked by TSI's collectors first. Scoring, skip tracing and collector review flag accounts where the balance, the customer's assets and the documents point to a case.
Review and approve
TSI reviews each candidate and sends you a summary. You approve or decline, account by account, under the criteria you set.
Place with a firm
Approved accounts go to a network firm in the customer's state. The firm reviews the account, sends its own letter and tries to settle before any suit.
File only where it makes sense
If the account still won't resolve and the attorney finds it suit-worthy after review, the firm files. Every milestone is logged where you can see it.
Collect after judgment
Where a court enters judgment, the firm uses the remedies state law allows, and payments remit through TSI.
Where it fits with the other stages
Legal recovery is the last stage. Accounts usually reach it from third-party collections, after collectors have tried to reach the customer and set up a plan. Some creditors also send accounts straight from first-party work when the balance and documents justify it.
Because the same team ran the earlier stages, the firm gets the contact history, disputes and payment record with the account.
What you see
You get a view of every activity a firm takes on your accounts, from receipt and letters to filing, judgment and post-judgment steps. Reports cover legal placements against collections, judgment activity, skip-trace results, compliance holds and remittance, on the schedule you choose.
You also get the oversight record: audit findings, remediation status and each firm's risk score. Your vendor-risk team will ask for it, so it's built to hand over.
General information, current as of November 2026. It isn't legal advice. Rules change and differ by state, so check the sources linked here and talk to your own counsel before you act on it.
The company behind the work
Questions buyers ask
What is legal recovery?
Legal recovery is the stage where unpaid accounts go to collection law firms that can settle or sue, and TSI's version sends them to vetted firms in the customer's state and files nothing without your written approval.
Does TSI sue customers without asking us?
No. Every suit needs your written approval, and you can decline any account.
Which state's firm handles the account?
A network firm in the state where the customer lives. Federal law generally requires a collector to sue where the customer lives or signed the contract (15 USC 1692i).
When should an account go to legal?
When the balance, the customer's assets, the age of the debt and your documents support a case, usually after agency work hasn't resolved it. State law decides the rest, and many accounts won't qualify.
What does legal recovery cost?
Network firms work on contingency. Court costs, filing fees and how they're advanced or recovered are agreed in your contract before any account is placed.
What documents do we need?
Usually the contract or application, the transaction history and final statements before charge-off. Your firm and state may need more, and TSI checks before placement.
Can we use our own law firms?
Yes. You can keep your own firms for some states and use TSI's network for the rest. Ask for results by firm and state so you can compare them.
Find out which of your accounts could support legal action
The Recovery Performance Diagnostic reviews one portfolio or segment, sets baseline economics and designs a carve-out, including which accounts belong in legal review.
Got a letter or call from TSI about your own account? Go to the Consumer Support Hub or make a payment.
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Paying a bill or have a question about your account? Go to the Consumer Support Hub.