Very interesting Jim. So even for debt of 7k a debt collection agency can take a judgement against you and seize your assets? Wow.
Well a debt collection agency has more motivation than a bank to collect as that is the only way they make money. Lets take the 7K example, if they buy that of the bank for say 2K, then if they fail to collect they have lost real money... and if this happens too often they'll go out of business hence the big motivation factor.
But of course having said that it all depends on what the bank decides to do in the individual case. But it is important to remember that just because a bank says it has written the debt off that does not mean that the debt has died, it just means they have taken it off their books. They could still decide to pass it on to a collection agency.
Jim.