Short answer. Yes, ordinarily. A commission agent who fails to collect your credits once they are due and demandable is liable for damages, unless he can prove he actually exercised due diligence in trying to collect them. The burden of showing diligence falls on the agent, not on you.
What the law says
The commission agent who does not collect the credits of his principal at the time when they become due and demandable shall be liable for damages, unless he proves that he exercised due diligence for that purpose.
Civil Code, Article 1908 — Failure to Collect Credits. Read the full provision →
The rule starts against the agent, not you
Article 1908 puts the agent on the back foot. If a commission agent fails to collect your credits at the time they become due and demandable, he is liable for damages — full stop — unless he proves he exercised due diligence in trying to collect them. You do not have to show the agent was careless; the default position is that a failure to collect on time is his responsibility, and it is up to him to show otherwise.
What 'due diligence' has to look like
The article does not spell out a checklist, but the phrase requires more than passive waiting. An agent who simply let a due date pass without sending a demand, following up, or taking any step toward collection has little to point to as diligence. What counts as sufficient effort will vary with the debtor, the amount, and the arrangement between you and the agent, but the agent needs concrete steps he actually took — not an assurance that he meant to get to it.
This is a duty about timing, not just outcome
Notice that the article is triggered by the credit becoming due and demandable — it is about the agent's conduct once collection was possible, not a guarantee that every debtor will actually pay. An agent is not automatically liable just because a debtor turned out to be insolvent or evasive despite genuine, timely collection efforts; he is liable when he let the moment to collect pass without doing anything about it, or without doing enough.
What to gather if you are pursuing this
Start by establishing the two dates that matter: when each receivable actually became due and demandable, and what, if anything, the agent did afterward. Ask the agent directly for whatever records he has of collection attempts — demand letters, calls, correspondence with the debtor — since under Article 1908 that proof is his to produce, not yours to disprove. If he has nothing to show, that gap is itself significant, and it is worth taking your account records and the agency agreement to a lawyer to assess what damages the shortfall in collection actually caused you.