What to Do When a Client in the Dominican Republic Stops Paying: The Action for Collection of a Sum of Money

A supplier invoices two million pesos to a distributor in Santo Domingo. Sixty days pass. Then ninety. The phone stops ringing on the other end. It is at that moment, not before, that most companies, whether Dominican or foreign, discover that amicable collection efforts have a limit, and that Dominican law offers a different route to recover the money: the action for collection of a sum of money (demanda en cobro de pesos).

This is the judicial mechanism a creditor uses to compel payment of a debt through the Dominican courts. It makes sense to trigger it as soon as the creditor perceives that the receivable is at real risk of becoming uncollectible; waiting rarely improves the position of the party making the claim.

The law does not require the debt to be set out in an elaborate contract. It is enough to prove its existence: an invoice, a promissory note, or even a prior judgment can support the claim, provided they express a sum of money and a past-due payment date. This is precisely the point at which many companies fail through administrative carelessness: they invoice without a signed acknowledgment of receipt, without a delivery note (conduce), or without any documentary trail linking the debtor to the amount claimed. Without that trail, even the strongest claim is weakened.

Which court hears the case?

Jurisdiction depends on the amount. Sums of up to RD$20,000 correspond to the Justice of the Peace Courts (Juzgados de Paz); above that figure, the case passes to the corresponding Court of First Instance (Juzgado de Primera Instancia). It is a threshold that has existed since the 1998 reform and that, although there are legislative proposals to update it, remains in force.

The debtor, for its part, is released from the obligation by proving that it has already paid or that the debt was extinguished by another means recognized in law, a set-off, for example, or a limitation period (prescription). That is why the typical defense of a Dominican defendant is not to deny the debt, but to produce the receipt that the creditor failed to request in time.

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Disclaimer: This publication is not intended to provide advice or suggest a guaranteed outcome as individual situations will differ and the situation may have changed since publication. For specific advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.

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