Deferred Court Costs, Net

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Deferred Costs, Capitalized, Prepaid, and Other Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

Deferred Court Costs, Net

Note 5: Deferred Court Costs, Net

As discussed in “Note 1: Ownership, Description of Business, and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” effective January 1, 2020 and as part of the adoption of CECL, the Company changed its method of accounting for court costs spent in its legal collection channel. The Company now expenses all of its court costs as incurred and includes all expected recoveries, including the recoveries from the legal channel, in the measurement of the investment in receivable portfolios at a discounted value. As a result, the Company no longer carries deferred court costs.

Net deferred court costs under the previous accounting method consisted of the following as of the date presented (in thousands):

	December 31, 2019
Court costs advanced	$	891,207
Court costs recovered	(369,043)
Court costs reserve	(421,992)
Deferred court costs, net	$	100,172

A roll-forward of the Company’s court cost reserve as accounted for under the previous accounting method is as follows for the periods presented (in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2018
Balance as of beginning of period	$	(396,460)	$	(364,015)
Provision for court costs	(82,987)		(90,026)
Charge-offs	60,618		53,383
Effect of foreign currency translation	(3,163)		4,198
Balance as of end of period	$	(421,992)	$	(396,460)