Debt Recovery – Claims up to £100,000
Our charges:
Our overall fees vary depending upon how complex your case is and what you would like us to do. For a free quote specifically tailored to your circumstances please make a free enquiry or call us. We would be more than happy to discuss your case.
To give you an idea of how we charge however, and to comply the SRA price transparency rules, we have set out below details of our typical charges on the basis of a debt which is undisputed and without you requiring advice on the legal basis of the claim e.g. if you require advice on whether you are contractually entitled to bring a claim, that work will be charged in addition.
Depending on the circumstances, it may be appropriate to issue a statutory demand and we will provide you with the cost of that if it is required separately.
Our charges are made up of:
- our fees for the legal work; and
- ‘disbursements’ – disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to other people, such as fees for bailiffs. We can handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf which may incur banking fees.
Where VAT is referred to below please note that this will be charged at the applicable rate, which is currently 20%.
Our fees
In debt recovery work the legal fees often vary depending upon how much work we need to do to recover the debt. We therefore tend to charge fees for each stage of the recovery process and only charge clients for the parts they need:
1) Letter before action
A Letter Before Action is a letter which formally demands payment from the person who owes you money (the ‘debtor’). This is the first step for any debt recovery process before starting court proceedings. This stage normally takes 14 days depending upon the nature of the debt but can take up to 35 days if tracing is quired and the debtor is a consumer.
This is typically charged at a fixed cost between £300 and £450 (plus VAT) depending on the circumstances and includes:
- Undertaking appropriate searches if appropriate (the cost (disbursement) of this expense will be in addition)
- Sending a letter before action
- Receiving payment and sending onto you, where applicable (bank charges will be payable in addition)
Some cases may be more complicated and require us to charge on a different basis and may take longer than usual. The letter before action fee assumes that the documents to be considered are limited, all information required is provided, limitation (the time by which court proceedings need to be issued) is not an issue, negotiations with the debtor are not required and work required is limited to that set out above. Contact us for a quote tailored to your circumstances.
2) Issue Court Proceedings
If the debt has not been paid following the letter before action, we will draft and issue court proceedings on your behalf. Depending on the circumstances it may be appropriate to instruct a barrister and the barrister’s fee will be in addition – we will provide an estimate of those fees for your approval in advance of work being undertaken. The fees are for preparing court proceedings only and assume that no defence is advanced by the debtor and no further work with the court is required. Our typical fees for issuing a court claim are below:
| Debt Value | Court Fee | Our fee | Total |
| Up to £5,000 | £35 – £205 | Up to £1,000 (plus VAT) | Up to £1,405 |
| £5,000 to £10,000 | £455 | Up to £2,000 (plus VAT) | Up to £2,855 |
| £10,000 to £50,000 | 5% value of the claim | Up to £3,000 (plus VAT) | Up to £6,100 |
| £50,0000 to £100,000 | 5% value of the claim | Up to £4,000 (plus VAT) | Up to £9,800 |
Court fees do not have VAT.
Interest and late payment compensation may take the debt into a higher bracket, to which a higher fee will apply. Where proceedings have been issued, there may also be fixed recoverable fees which vary depending upon the value of the claim. Those fixed recoverable fees ordered by the court will be payable to you. In the event that you agree to not collect the fixed recoverable fees/late payment compensation or the court does not order them, you will not receive the fixed recoverable fees/late payment compensation. Please also note that the fixed recoverable fees are not the same as our fees for the work conducted.
This stage normally takes up to 21 days from the date you instruct us to issue court proceedings depending upon the nature of the debt. This stage relates to the timeframe for us to issue court proceedings. The debtor will have up to 28 days to provide a defence (although our typical fees are set on the basis of an undisputed debt). If no defence is submitted, you will be entitled to enter judgment.
Some cases may be more complicated and require us to charge on a different basis and may take longer than usual. Contact us for a quote tailored to your circumstances.
3) Enter Judgement
If there is no response, we may be able apply to the Court to ‘obtain Judgment’ for you. This means you would have a court order which you can enforce to reclaim your money because the claim was not responded to. Our fees (which do not include enforcement) would be:
| Value of Claim | Our Fee |
| Up to £5,000 | Up to £250 (plus VAT) |
| Over £5,000 | Up to £600 (plus VAT) |
If you are successful in obtaining judgment but payment is still not received then we will advise you on the next steps at that time, such as enforcement action and what the likely costs would be.
This stage normally takes 14 days depending upon the nature of the debt.
Some cases may be more complicated and require us to charge on a different basis and may take longer than usual. Contact us for a quote tailored to your circumstances.
4) Defended Claims and more complex cases
If a debtor submits a defence to your claim or the case is otherwise more complicated, we will normally charge you an hourly rate for the time which we spend on your case (please note if you lose a defended case you may be ordered to pay your opponents costs). The hourly rate for debt recovery matters depends upon the experience of the fee earner handling the matter:
| Fee Earner | Hourly Rate |
| Partner/solicitor with 8 years post qualification experience (‘PQE’) | £413 (plus VAT) |
| Solicitor with more than 4 years PQE | £319 (plus VAT) |
| Solicitor with less than 4 years PQE | £269 (plus VAT) |
| Trainee Solicitor/Paralegal | £160 (plus VAT) |
Timescales for defended and more complex cases are more difficult to predict. Sometimes matters can be resolved within a matter of weeks but others can take much longer. Contact us for more tailored guidance on your circumstances.
5) Account set up
For all new clients, there will be an account set up fee of £25 plus VAT.
6) Disbursements
You will need to pay for ‘disbursements’ in addition to our costs as described above. In a debt recovery matter the most common disbursement is the Court fee and the cost for these are listed above.
If we need to go to Court then a barrister (sometimes called ‘Counsel’) is often used to deal with the hearing and the preparation of some documents. This is not common. If a barrister is required we will recommend a barrister with appropriate experience and obtain a fee estimate for your approval in advance of any work by the barrister being carried out.
Barrister’s fees tend to be in the region of £2,000 plus VAT (£2,400) per day. It may be higher or lower depending on the work required and the seniority of barrister instructed. If a barrister is required we will recommend a barrister with appropriate experience and obtain a fee estimate for your approval in advance of any work by the barrister being carried out. We will however guide you on this as and when such costs need to be incurred.
In addition, law firms are required to confirm their client’s individual or corporate identify, along with other regulatory required checked. These checks will be payable by the client as a disbursement.
Monies recovered as part of any case work which are paid into our Third Party Managed Account will attract ID verification fees and money transaction fees which will also be payable in addition to the fees referred to above.
Other costs to consider
The costs set out above do not include enforcement action such as for bailiffs to go out and collect the debt on your behalf. They also do not include defended or more complex matters.
Key stages of your case
The costs described above typically cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages a debt recovery process:
- Discussing your case with you and, where appropriate, reviewing documents you provide
- Performing relevant checks and searches
- Sending a letter before action (see above)
- Receiving payment and forwarding payment to you (which may require additional bank charges which you will pay) or, if a debt is not paid, drafting and issuing court proceedings
- If no response is received, applying to the Court for Judgment in Default, subject to the additional costs for doing so as detailed above being paid;
- If Judgment in Default is received, writing to the other side to demand payment
- If payment is still not received within the specified timescale, providing you with guidance on the next steps and likely costs
It would not normally be necessary to undertake other work or incur costs other than those described above. However, we would be very happy to provide you with a more tailored quote for all stages of your particular case once we know about your specific circumstances.
How long will my case take?
Please see time estimates above for the timescales in each stage of the process.
In terms of the overall time the debt recovery will take, if a debt is not disputed, we find that it typically takes up to 10 weeks from sending the letter before action (see above) to requesting a Judgment in Default. A debtor with sufficient funds to do so will very often pay upon being sent the Judgment in Default and so matters can quickly be resolved after obtaining a Judgement in Default (within about 14 to 28 days).
If the debt is disputed, defended or enforcement action is required, the matter will ordinarily take longer than this to resolve and involve additional costs which will be discussed with you in advance.
Who will be dealing with my case?
Your case will be handled by a trusted member of our experienced team. We will introduce you to the person handling your case and provide you with full details of their background and qualifications.
Regardless of who is working on your case the matter will be supervised by a senior member of the firm, including:
Kevin Timms
- LLB
- Insurance, Construction, Commercial Disputes, Medical/Personal Injury and Debt Recovery
