Strategically Enforcing Debt With Reach And Apply Injunctions In Massachusetts

Last updated on June 2, 2026

Just because you have won your judgment in a court of law does not mean that your debtor is going to repay your debt without a fight. In fact, courts do not unilaterally enforce your judgment, which means you’re still a ways away from receiving payment even after obtaining a judgment. With a time limit on when the execution of your judgment can be enforced, you need to move quickly and employ an effective strategy to make your debtor pay up within the statute of limitations. Fortunately, there are lesser-known, yet powerful, legal techniques available in Massachusetts that the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC frequently uses to help you get paid.

If a third party owes your debtor money, Massachusetts Law Chapter 214, Section 3 enables the use of a reach and apply injunction. This powerful tool allows you to obtain a court injunction ordering the third party not to pay your debtor directly, but instead to pay you. This eliminates your debtor as a middleman and helps to ensure that you get paid.

Read an example of how we used a reach and apply injunction to collect $1,000,000 in deficiency balance for a bank.

If you know with whom your debtor sells or provides services, then you may benefit from using the reach and apply injunction to get paid. The aggressive collections attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC have over 60 years of experience using this unique remedy to get their clients paid when other approaches have failed. We have creatively and successfully used reach and apply injunctions to prevent third parties from making direct payments to delinquent debtors who, without this injunction, would simply pocket the money and evade their creditors.

The following story outlines one of the many instances in which we utilized our outside-the-box approach to do what we relentlessly fight to do – get our clients paid:

Reach And Apply Injunction Success Story

The client of a Massachusetts marketing company suddenly decided they no longer wished to pay the marketing company, leaving a substantial debt. The marketing agency made efforts to collect the earned payments, but to no avail. With no other recourse, they called attorney Alan M. Cohen to help them collect their bad debt. After conducting online research into the debtor, it was determined that the defendant utilized multiple online payment services, including PayPal, to receive payments from customers.

Armed with this knowledge, we acted quickly and filed a suit. We sought out, and eventually obtained, a reach and apply injunction precluding PayPal and certain other online payment services from making any payments to the debtor, who from here on will be referred to as Mr. Deadbeat. When Mr. Deadbeat eventually realized that his stream of income had dried up, he suddenly became more than willing to find a way to resolve his debt.

We then entered negotiations with Mr. Deadbeat to figure out a repayment plan. After a few weeks, Mr. Deadbeat offered to pay an acceptable amount to our client, thereby repaying his debt.

The Use Of Reach And Apply Sets The Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC Apart From The Crowd

While many lawyers in Massachusetts may not consider using a reach and apply injunction in their practice, the experienced collections attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC remain a cut above the rest. We regularly feature this powerful prejudgment and post-judgment litigation tactic in our arsenal of effective debt collection techniques, demonstrating our deep understanding of how and when to best utilize reach and apply injunctions to get our clients paid.

Indeed, we are the lawyers other Massachusetts attorneys consult for their delinquent debts and to help with their clients’ collection challenges. We are not a firm that merely dabbles in commercial collection or has only read about reach and apply injunctions; we actively implement them. Our comprehensive collection law services go beyond these injunctions and include more traditional means of obtaining prejudgment security and post-judgment payment, such as:

• Bank attachments
• Trustee attachments
• Real estate attachments
• Regular injunctions and equitable injunctions

In addition to prejudgment debt collection, we also have decades of experience preparing and enforcing:

• Mechanic’s liens
• Post-judgment collections
• Judgment enforcement
• Foreign judgment registration, domestication and enforcement
• General business litigation

Put our extensive knowledge and proven experience to work for you, and let the results speak for themselves. We are prepared to strategically use every available attachment and injunction to help secure the payment you deserve.

With over 60 years of experience, the collections attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC relentlessly fight to help our clients get paid, especially by strategically using reach and apply injunctions in Massachusetts. We don’t dabble in debt collection – it is what we do.

From our office in Framingham, we proudly serve Greater Boston and all of Massachusetts. To have your bad debt collected by our aggressive collections attorneys, call 508-763-6604 or email us today.