Debt Recovery Solicitors

These costs apply where your claim is in relation to an unpaid invoice which is not disputed and 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 revised advice about costs if necessary, which could be on a fixed fee (eg. if a one-off letter is required) or an hourly rate if more extensive work is required.

Our fees will vary depending on the value of your claim. The fees shown below are average prices which are intended to provide some guidance on costs. The actual cost to you will depend on a number of factors which we will discuss with you in full at the outset of your case.

In small claims cases, legal fees are largely not recoverable so you will be responsible for your own legal costs whatever the outcome. To ensure legal costs are reasonable and manageable, we provide small claims debt recovery work on a fixed fee basis.

Following on from your initial free telephone consultation, we provide further fixed fee charges that will apply in your particular circumstances:

• £125 - £200 for a first consultation to review paperwork, take instructions and advise you on your position
• £300 - £750 for sending a letter before action and dealing with correspondence pre-action.
• £300 - £750 for preparing the court papers and issuing proceedings
• £750 - £1,250 for progressing the case to trial
• £500 - £750 for dealing with the trial

In these cases, the legal fees incurred can be recovered from the losing party (the debtor). Depending on the particular circumstances of your case, we are able to offer a range of charging scales:

• Hourly rates:         Based on our hourly charging rates of between £110 and £275 per hour, depending on who is dealing with your case.
• Fixed fees of approximately:
  • £125 - £200 plus VAT for an initial consultation to review paperwork, take instructions and advise you upon your position
  • £300 - £750 for sending a letter before action and dealing with correspondence pre-action
  • £300 - £750 for preparing Court papers and issuing proceedings.
  • Prices on applications can vary for progressing and dealing with the case at trial.  We will always be transparent and upfront and discuss costs with you first.

Disbursements are other costs which need to be paid on top of our fees for example, court fees, Barrister’s fees, expert’s fees. We cannot avoid these. A fee is payable to the court on the issue of proceedings. That fee depends on the amount claimed and increases in bands. Claims for £10,000 or more have an issue fee of 5% of the sum claimed. If the claim reaches trial, a hearing fee is payable. That fee ranges from £25 to £335 for claims up to £10,000. The fee for fast track (typically claims between £10,000 and £25,000) is £545 and for multi-track claims (typically over £25,000) is £1,090. Full details of court fees can be found on HM Court and Tribunal Service website here. In normal cases, the debtor will be expected to pay the majority of the costs incurred but there is often a shortfall even if you are successful. Also, you may win, but the debtor does not have sufficient funds to pay you even if you are successful. If your debt is less than £10,000, you would remain liable for our costs and charges incurred.

Matters usually take four to eight weeks from receipt of instructions from you to receipt of payment from the other side, depending on whether or not it is necessary to issue a claim. This is on the basis that the other side pays promptly on receipt of judgment in default. If enforcement action is needed, the matter will take longer to resolve.

Calvin Carrington and Monika Krtenova understand the commercial imperative involved in dealing with unpaid debts. The work we will carry out will involve:

• Ascertaining the position regarding the debt
• Liaising with your debtor prior to commencing court proceedings in an effort to resolve matters
• Filing documentation at court if necessary
• Representation at any hearing
• Follow up enforcement work if necessary to ensure the debt is duly paid as ordered by the court.

We will also undertake a risk assessment with you to enable you to make an informed decision about whether to proceed with a claim and we will also consider with you whether pursuit of a debt claim is commercially viable.

It is much more difficult to generalise about costs where a claim is contested since so much depends on the precise nature of the dispute and in particular whether it is necessary to involve a barrister and an expert witness. As such, costs can vary widely. If court proceedings have to be issued, there are a number of factors which may affect the cost of pursuing a claim including:

• Whether there is a dispute as to the terms of the contract
• Whether there is a contract in writing
• Whether there is a dispute about the quality or type of goods/services supplied
• How much documentation has to be reviewed
• How many witnesses are required to provide statements for use at trial
• Whether there are issues that will require expert evidence to be provided to the court
• The location and duration of the trial

Typically, we would expect a contested one day trial to have total costs (ie. Moore & Tibbits costs, together with a barrister to represent you at trial and court fees but not requiring expert evidence) between £10,000 to £15,000.  We would also anticipate that it would take somewhere in the region of 12 to 15 months to resolve.

In more complex cases however, or where expert evidence is required, it is possible that costs could be in the region of £25,000 to £40,000 and take 18 months or more to resolve.