Most guides on this topic are written for consumers in the United States dealing with collection agencies. This one is the opposite situation: you are the creditor, you are owed money by a company in Mexico, and you need to know how recovery actually works down here before you decide whether to pursue it, write it off or sell it.
What follows is the sequence a Mexican firm goes through on a commercial file. None of it requires you to travel, and most of it does not require original documents.
Step 1: Identify what instrument backs the debt
This is the question that determines everything else, and it is the one most creditors skip. In Mexico the type of document you hold decides which court procedure is available to you, how fast it moves, and whether you can attach the debtor's assets early.
If you hold a promissory note (a pagaré) properly signed by the debtor, you are in the strongest position. Mexican law treats it as a negotiable instrument, which opens an executive commercial proceeding: a faster track where the court can order attachment of assets near the beginning of the case rather than at the end. A check that was presented and not covered works similarly.
If all you have are invoices, purchase orders and a contract, the debt is still perfectly claimable, but through an ordinary commercial proceeding. It takes longer and the attachment of assets comes later in the process. This is the most common situation for US suppliers, and it is not a reason to walk away.
If at any point the debtor signed an acknowledgment of the debt or a payment plan, even one they later broke, pull it out. It substantially strengthens the file.
Step 2: Check the clock before anything else
Mexican law puts a statutory period on each type of claim. Past that point the obligation still exists in principle, but you lose the ability to enforce it in court, which in practice is the end of the negotiation.
| What you hold | Time limit | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Promissory note | 3 years from the due date | Art. 165, General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Transactions |
| Check | 6 months | Art. 192, same law |
| Invoices and contracts | 10 years | Art. 1047, Commercial Code |
| Default interest, none agreed | 6% per year | Art. 362, Commercial Code |
The six month window on checks is the one that catches foreign creditors, because internal escalation alone often takes that long. The ten year window on invoices is the one worth remembering for the opposite reason: accounts written off years ago are frequently still collectible, and we regularly open files on debts the client had already removed from their books.
Step 3: Confirm the debtor still exists and owns something
A judgment against an empty shell is an expensive piece of paper. Before spending money on litigation, the debtor gets verified: whether the company is still registered and operating, who controls it now, and whether there are assets worth pursuing.
There is a pattern specific to cross-border files. The entity that signed your purchase order is frequently not the entity that owns the plant, the trucks or the real estate. Mexican corporate groups often separate the operating company from the asset holding company. Finding that out at the start changes who you sue.
Step 4: The formal demand
Before filing, a formal demand goes out from Mexican counsel. This is not a courtesy step. A debtor who has spent six months ignoring emails from a foreign supplier behaves differently when the letter arrives from a local firm that can clearly file suit and attach their accounts.
A meaningful share of commercial files resolve here, through a negotiated payment plan. For most creditors that is the better outcome: money recovered in sixty days is usually worth more than a larger judgment two years out, particularly once you count the cost of the litigation itself.
Step 5: Choose the procedure
Executive commercial proceeding. Available when you hold a negotiable instrument. The court can order attachment of the debtor's assets early, which creates real pressure. This is the fast track.
Ordinary commercial proceeding. The route when the debt rests on invoices and contracts. There is a full evidentiary stage, so it takes longer, but the claim is just as valid and the eventual judgment is just as enforceable.
Which one applies is not a strategic choice. It follows from the document you hold, which is why Step 1 decides so much.
Step 6: Enforcement, where cases are actually won
Foreign creditors tend to treat the judgment as the finish line. In practice, obtaining it is the halfway mark. Enforcement is where the money moves: attachment of bank accounts, liens on real property, seizure and auction of assets. A firm that litigates well but does not push enforcement hard will hand you a win you cannot collect.
This is also where a debtor who has been moving assets gets caught, and the reason attachment early in the case matters so much when the instrument allows it.
What laws apply
Commercial debt in Mexico is governed mainly by the Commercial Code and the General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Transactions. Between them they set the available procedures, the statutory periods and the default interest rate where the parties never agreed on one, which is 6% per year. Your contract may set a different rate, and if it does, that governs.
One point that surprises US companies: a clause in your contract choosing the law or the courts of your home state does not remove the debtor's assets from Mexico. You may well have a valid judgment at home and still need a Mexican proceeding to touch anything.
What it costs
Commercial recovery in Mexico is commonly handled on contingency, meaning the firm charges a percentage of what it actually recovers rather than billing hours. The percentage varies with the age of the debt, the instrument backing it and how likely the account is to settle early.
The practical consequence is that a serious firm will decline files it does not believe are collectible, because it only gets paid on recovery. If a firm is willing to take any file at all as long as you pay upfront, that tells you something about the incentive structure.
Four mistakes that cost US creditors money
- Waiting. Every month reduces both the statutory runway and the odds that assets are still there. This is the single most expensive habit.
- Sending it to a collection agency first. An agency in Mexico cannot sue, cannot attach an account and cannot appear before a judge. Sophisticated debtors know precisely how far an agency can go, and they wait it out.
- Suing the wrong entity. The company on your invoice is not always the one holding the assets.
- Assuming a US judgment is enough. A foreign judgment has to go through a recognition procedure in Mexico, and service of process is where those cases most often fail. Sometimes suing here on the underlying debt is faster than enforcing the judgment you already have.
Reviewed: August 2026. This guide is general information about Mexican commercial law, not legal advice on a specific matter. Statutory periods can be interrupted or modified by acts of the parties, so the only way to know where a particular file stands is to have it reviewed.
If you want an answer on a specific account rather than a general one, that is what our international debt recovery practice does, and the first review does not cost anything.