Writing Off Bad Debt

I am in Tennessee. We have written off a bad debt on our business tax return for 2002. Recently, we were made aware that this person could possibly be collected from. Have we forfeited our right to collect since we already wrote off the debt, or do we have the ability (legally, of course) to remove this loss from our return via an amendment and continue collection efforts?

You don't remove the bad debt; you simply declare it as income if & when you collect any money. You can deduct the costs of collecting money.