Once all chasing the non-paying side has been exhausted completely, if there is nothing else that can be done, the simple solution to most people would be to take legal action irrespective of the cost.
It may seem like the most rational thing to do, but without going through the various options that are available a hasty decision to go through the legal action route is reactive as opposed to being proactive.
Quite simply many businesses and/or sole businesses just do not have the funds to discharge you.
There will be times however where legal action is needed as ample opportunities to get the debt paid is ignored (for whatever reason), but if all communication is ignored then there is a cost in taking action, but this covered under a separate blog.
The following is a step by step guide to understanding whether or not one needs to decide further before taking action:
1) How much is your debt
2) The costs that you have been quoted for the debt balance – is it more than the value of the debt?
3) Time versus money – unless it’s worth a significant value to you, are you not able to just close out on getting the value written off (on the proviso it does not cost much to chase)?
4) What have you done to get the debt paid yourself. Do you have copies of this all documented and ready at a later point?
5) As long as it’s not disputed then taking action maybe a worthwhile step, but not always.