No, you can unless

judge said so. You have an attorney who represent you on this and ultimately get such decisions from judge. Otherwise, You normally get nothing by only working by yourself.

I threatened one of my tenants by saying that I am going to her HR and supervisor. She finally reached a payback plan with me by installment of $100 per month. It took me 20 month to collect the money she owed me. At that time, we reached mutual agreement that I am not going to court to sue her, but we did have a signed paper to state the payment amount and date of each month.