Our charges are made up of:
a) our fees for the legal work; and
b) ‘disbursements’ – disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to other people, such as fees for bailiffs. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.
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 21 days depending upon the nature of the debt.
This is charged at a fixed cost of £175.00 (plus VAT) and includes:
• Undertaking appropriate searches
• Sending a letter before action
• Receiving payment and sending onto you, where applicable
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.
2) Issue Court Proceedings
If the debt has not been paid following the letter of action, we will draft and issue court proceedings on your behalf. Our standard fees for issuing a court claim are below:
| Debt Value | Court Fee | Our Fee | Total (Excluding VAT) |
| £1,000.00 to £1,500.00 | £80.00 | £100.00 (Plus VAT) | £180.00 |
| £1,500.00 to £3,00.00 | £115.00 | £100.00 (Plus VAT) | £215.00 |
| £3,00.00 to £5,000 | £205.00 | £100.00 (plus VAT) | £305.00 |
| £5,000 to £10,000 | £455.00 | £150.00 (plus VAT) | £605.00 |
| £10,000 to but not over £100,000.00 | 5% value of the claim | Hourly Rates Apply | Depends on the precise value of the sum claimed |
| Over £200,000.00 | £10,000.00 | Hourly Rates Apply | Depends on the precise value of the sum claimed |
Please note that the court fees are regularly updated, fees can change, please see link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fees-in-the-civil-and-family-courts-main-fees-ex50 Court fees do not have VAT.
To issue Court proceedings, we would normally anticipate the Court to issue the proceedings within 14 to 28 days and serve the proceedings on the Defendant. The Defendant would have 14 days to acknowledge service and 28 days to file a Defence. If they fail to do either of these, default Judgment can be applied for. This is likely to take a further 14 days.
If the Defendant defends the action, the matter is likely to take between 3 and 6 months to get a small claims trial, 6 to 12 months for a fast-track trial and 6 to 18 months for a multi-track trial.
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 would be:
| Value of Claim | Our Fee |
| Up to £5,000 | £25.00 (plus VAT) |
| Over £5,000 | £30.00 (plus VAT) |
If we are successful in obtaining judgment for you 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 (see below).
This stage normally takes up to 2 months 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. The hourly rate depends upon the experience of the fee earner handling the matter:
| Details | Hourly Rate |
| Director | £300.00 per hour (Plus VAT) |
| Solicitors and legal executives with over 8 years’ experience | £300.00 (plus VAT) |
| Solicitors, CILEX or Costs Lawyers with at least 4 years PQE | £275.00 (plus VAT) |
| Other solicitors or legal executives and fee earners of equivalent experience | £250.00 (plus VAT) |
| Trainee solicitors, paralegals and other fee earners | £150.00 (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.
