Debt Recovery (up to £100,000)

How do we charge?

Our fees cover the legal work required to complete the relevant transactions type including, but not limited to, the following debt recovery related matters:

• Where your claim is in relation to a simple unpaid invoice which is not disputed and when enforcement action is not needed. If the other party disputes your claim at any point, we will discuss any further work required and provide you with updated costs advice.

Hourly rates

	£ excl VAT at 20%	£ incl VAT at 20%
Partner	£350.00	£420.00
Senior Associate	£320.00	£384.00
Solicitor	£220.00	£264.00
Trainee Solicitor	£150 to £165.00	£180 to £198.00

In a straightforward, uncontested debt recovery claim, the cost to issue a Letter before Action is usually capped at £180 incl VAT at 20% (£150 excl VAT at 20%). This is based on sending a letter to a business debtor and on the information contained on the invoice, which you provide. Any additional requirements to consider documentation, or to liaise with you / the debtor regarding the outstanding debt, or otherwise will be charged at a rate agreed with you, based on the hourly rate range set out above.

If Court proceedings become necessary, our fees for preparing the papers necessary to issue Court claims are charged at a rate agreed with you, calculated using the above hourly rate range and subject to fee milestones agreed with you.

Should the debt recovery matter proceed to a full trial in the County Court, we would expect an average range of costs to be between £18,000-£72,000 inc VAT at 20% (£15,000-£60,000 excl VAT at 20%) plus disbursements. However, much depends upon the complexity of the issues in dispute, availability of information/documentation, approach taken by the other side and the Court.

Court fees payable to the Court to issue proceedings are based on a sliding scale, dependent upon the band into which the amount you are claiming falls. By way of example, for claims between £10,000 and no more than £200,000, the fee is currently 5% of the value of the claim where a claim is issued at court and, 4.5% of the value where a claim is issued online.

Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:

• The VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your debtor even if you are successful in recovering some or all of your legal costs.
• Interest and compensation may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost.
• The costs quoted above are not for matters where any enforcement action, such as the bailiff, is needed to collect your debt.
• For small claims up to £10,000, clients are only entitled to recover fixed costs.
• Our fees as detailed above include:
  • Taking your instructions and reviewing documentation;
  • Undertaking appropriate searches;
  • Sending a letter before action;
  • Receiving payment and sending on to you, or if the debt is not paid, drafting and issuing the claim papers;
  • Where no Acknowledgment of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgement in default;
  • When Judgement in default in received, writing to the other side to request payment;
  • If payment is not received within an agreed period, providing you with advice on next steps and likely costs.

Disbursements

In addition to the Court fee to issue the claim itself as set out in this note, the likely disbursements payable to the Court on a straightforward contested debt recovery matter are likely to include:

• Hearing fee of between £35.00 and £1,175.00 dependent upon amount sought by the claim/counterclaim,
• Application fee on applications made in course of proceedings, depending upon nature of application of between £59.00 and £303.00.
• Certain cases may require the use of Counsel and/or Experts and disbursement fees for Counsel and Experts will depend upon the type and experience of Counsel/Expert instructed.

How long will my matter take?

Timescales to achieve resolution depend significantly upon the approach adopted by the debtor. However, by way of a guide, a Letter before Action will usually demand payment within 14 days. Once Court proceedings are served, a debtor will normally have 14 days within which to acknowledge the claim and indicate whether it intends to defend the claim and, if so, it then has a further 14 days in the first instance to file any defence to the Court proceedings.    

Who will be advising you?

A suitably qualified member(s) of our Dispute Resolution team  will work on your matter. For straightforward, uncontested debt recovery claims, these are usually handled by a junior member of our  team, supervised by partner and team head David Murray or another senior member of the team. You can find out more about the members of our team below.

• Angela Bowman
• Jonathan Dinsdale
• Lauren Johnson
• Louise Low
• David Murray
• A trainee solicitor completing a "seat" in our team

Who to contact for further
information or legal advice?

Please contact us for more detailed and specific information. Return to our main 'How Do We Charge'. page.