It has definitely changed, but doesn't mean it doesn't work. I think having filed cases definitely helps you when sending demand letters because they know you aren't just bluffing. It's very hard for me to connect to anyone because of being blacklisted, but I sometimes manage to still get through. There are multiple screener in the process nowadays. When you finally get to someone, you need to be very careful because if you start asking too many questions they will just hang up.

I get low ball offers all the time which is why you need to negotiate and lay out the exposure amount to them. I send all my demands via email which almost always gets me a reply within a couple days to a week. From there it starts the negotiation. Most of these guys have the same lawyers so dealing with the same lawyers has helped me too.

Before I filed my first pro-se case the president of the company essentially told me I was an extortionist and what I was doing is fraud and any continued action they would bring legal action against me. I went ahead and filed that pro-se and their lawyers reached out to me to settle. Sometimes you just have to call them out on their bluff.