Undisputed Business to Business Debt Collection – information on pricing

1. Letter Before Claim

• This is an initial letter sent to the debtor business, summarising the claim and warning that court proceedings will be commenced if payment is not made.
• You must provide the required information including the name and address of the debtor, a succinct summary of what the debt relates to and when it was incurred, the precise figure for the debt owed (including any interest) and a copy of any invoice or statement.
• At this stage we are not offering any advice on the merits of your claim.
• We will report to confirm whether the debtor has paid, or disputed the debt or failed to reply or requested more time.
• For this work we make a charge of £150 plus vat (currently charged at 20%). If you instruct us to calculate any interest due the charge will be £200 plus vat (currently charged at 20%).
• We will review this charge if it transpires that extra work is required in order to establish any of the information required above.
• A Letter before Claim must provide the debtor with a reasonable period to take advice and respond, which is usually in the region of 21 – 28 days from the date of the letter.

2. Court Claims

• If the debtor business still fails to pay, you may want to start court proceedings. The costs below apply where your claim is in relation to an unpaid invoice (or similar claim) which is not disputed and enforcement action is not needed.
• If your claim is not straightforward or if the debtor business disputes your claim at any point, we will discuss with you any further work required and provide you with revised advice about costs if necessary, which could be on the basis of a fixed fee or our hourly rate/s.

Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:

• The VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your debtor.
• Interest and compensation may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost.
• The costs quoted above are not for matters where enforcement action is needed to collect your debt, such as appointing an Enforcement Officer.
• If your claim is allocated to the Small Claims Track (generally this is when it is £10,000 or less), you will not be entitled to recover any costs you pay to us, other than the court fee (which will be added to the debt)

Our fee under this section includes:

• Taking your instructions and reviewing documentation
• Undertaking appropriate searches
• Drafting and issuing claim
• 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 21 days, providing you with advice on next steps and likely costs

In view of the fact that we will start work immediately upon receipt of your instructions a payment on account of the estimated costs is required at the outset.

Matters usually take up to 10 weeks from receipt of instructions from you to receipt of payment from the other side, depending on how the debtor responds to the claim. This also assumes that the debtor pays promptly on receipt of the Judgement. If enforcement action is needed, the matter will take longer to resolve. This time estimate will increase if there is any delay in the court processing the documentation.

A full breakdown of timescales can be found below:

Caseworkers

Deepak Kumar - Solicitor

Deepak Kumar Johar qualified as a solicitor in May 1986 having obtained an Honours Degree in Law from Kings College, London. He has been an active member of the Funding Review Committee of the Legal Services Commission (now the Legal Aid Agency) and a former member of the Recognition Panel for Investors in People. He is a former President of the Leicestershire Asian Business Association, a former director of the Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce and has served on the Law Society Contentious Sub Committee. He is a member of the Law Society Family Panel.

He has extensive experience in Commercial Litigation, Charity Litigation, Contested Probate, Commercial Law, Commercial Property and Family Law, having dealt with a number of cases and transactions over 30 years of private practice. He is able to advise on the law and procedural matters in respect of complex litigation in which he specialises and is fully committed to dispute resolution and mediation where appropriate. He also has considerable experience of commercial property, acting for private investors, developers and corporate clients and also has expertise in the purchase and sales of businesses generally but particularly Nursing and Residential Care Homes, Dental Practices, GP Practices and Estate Agents.

Being a member of the Law Society Family Panel he also has the required expertise and experience in family law and has advised and dealt with many complex family disputes including international child abduction and financial disputes. He is a member of Resolution and adopts their code of practice in his family work.

Anita Chauhan - Paralegal

Anita Chauhan joined the firm in June 1988 as Legal Secretary moving to become a paralegal in the Litigation Department. She is now a Personal Assistant to Deepak Johar.

She has gained many years' experience in administrative and secretarial aspects of dealing with work in Commercial Litigation, Family and Matrimonial and Commercial Property.

Since 1994 she has also been responsible for the firms Office Manual and Quality Assurance Procedures such as Investors in People and the Legal Services Commission's Quality Mark.