Recovering trade dues with limited paperwork
Traders rarely have purchase orders. What you usually have is enough: your sale bills, delivery challans or transport receipts, e-way bills for larger consignments, WhatsApp messages confirming orders and promising payment, and the party’s ledger confirmations. Part-payments and written promises also restart the three-year limitation period. Our advocates build the claim from exactly these.
Routes that work for traders
- Legal notice. A formal demand with the full ledger. Many parties pay because they want to keep buying in Kozhikode’s market.
- Section 138. If a cheque bounced, the strongest route: criminal consequences and a tight timeline (notice within 30 days of the return memo).
- Summary suit. For bill-based dues with no genuine dispute, the court can decide without a full trial.
- Settlement with security. Payment plans backed by post-dated cheques, so a missed instalment is itself a Section 138 case.
MSME Samadhaan is generally not available to pure trading businesses; manufacturers and processors with Udyam registration can use it.
Recovering B2B dues in Kozhikode: what is specific here
Kozhikode’s timber, plywood and footwear businesses supply dealers across Kerala and the Gulf-linked trade, and food traders deal on long-standing relationships. For domestic buyers who stop paying, a legal notice followed by a summary suit on the invoices is the usual route; Udyam-registered manufacturers can add MSME Samadhaan.
Main industries: timber and plywood, footwear, spices and food trading, healthcare and construction.
Courts: Judicial First Class Magistrate courts, Kozhikode, for Section 138; District Court, Kozhikode, and its Commercial Court for recovery suits.
MSME claims: Udyam-registered micro and small suppliers in Kozhikode file on MSME Samadhaan, heard by the Kerala Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council (Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram). The Council sits where the supplier is, so a Kozhikode supplier can pursue a buyer in another state from home.
How recovery works for a business in Kozhikode
- Free consultation and case assessment. Send us the invoice, purchase order or delivery proof and the buyer’s messages. We tell you what is recoverable and how.
- Dedicated advocate within 24 hours. Your advocate sends a legal notice as an e-notice the same day and by registered post, with proof of delivery saved.
- Negotiation and settlement. The advocate calls the buyer, explains the consequences and agrees a payment plan. About 60% of our cases close here.
- Filing if needed. MSME Samadhaan before the Kerala Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council, a Section 138 complaint in the Kozhikode magistrate courts, a summary suit or arbitration, handled by the same advocate.
You pay nothing upfront. Our fee is 30% of the amount actually recovered; if nothing is recovered there is no fee. Court fees, where a matter is filed, are borne by you and told to you in advance.