Landing Lawyer Larry Recovers a U.S. Company's Domestic Debt in Full through Mediation

Recently, Larry Zhou, senior partner of Landing (Shenzhen) Law Office, concluded a domestic debt recovery dispute he handled for a U.S. company through mediation in litigation, with the client recovering nearly RMB 500000 in total.

The U.S. company had previously purchased goods from a trading company in Dongguan, China. Due to the supplier's delayed shipment, the supplier issued a written refund commitment after negotiation, and its sole shareholder and director personally assumed joint and several guarantee liability for the refund obligation. When the deadline passed, no refund was made.

After being retained, Attorney Larry first sent a demand letter. The counterparty verbally agreed to repay but took no actual action thereafter. Attorney Larry then advised the client to immediately sue the sole shareholder of the trading company in his personal capacity, and guided the client through the notarization and Apostille legalization of its corporate and authorization documents.

The filing process was initially not smooth. The defendant had long lived apart from his registered household, and the court at his place of household registration declined to accept the case. Larry's legal team investigated and obtained the defendant's residence registration records at his place of habitual residence, on which basis the case was successfully filed. Larry also applied for property preservation in parallel, freezing the defendant's bank accounts and the equity he held in other companies, which put the defendant under repayment pressure.

At first, the defendant refused to acknowledge the debt and denied that the signature on the refund commitment was his own. Larry therefore guided the client in retrieving multiple historical payment vouchers from overseas banks, which corroborated the written commitment and proved the debt.

Faced with sufficient evidence, the defendant no longer denied the debt. Through Larry's coordination between the parties, they ultimately reached a settlement: the defendant was granted a grace period to pay the debt in eight monthly installments; at the same time, to secure the client's recovery, upon any missed installment, all remaining amounts together with liquidated damages would immediately become due, and the client could apply directly for compulsory enforcement. The court issued a civil mediation order confirming these arrangements.

After the mediation order took effect, Larry Zhou tracked the defendant's repayment installment by installment—reminding and pressing for payment as each due date arrived, and reconciling each receipt with the client. All eight installments, together with the preservation and court acceptance fees borne by the defendant, have been paid in full, and the client's claim has been fully satisfied.

The client was very satisfied with Larry Zhou's legal work and has since not only entrusted the legal team with multiple matters in China, but also retained the team as its regular legal counsel.