If you are owed money and have an uncooperative debtor, we can advise on the options available to you.  Sometimes a letter indicating that proceedings will be started if payment is not made from your solicitor is sufficient to demonstrate to the debtor that you mean business and will pursue what is owed to you.  Alternatively, we can act for you in applying for judgment and will explore which of the available enforcement options would be most appropriate to the circumstances.  Where appropriate we can also act for you in the preparation of a statutory demand and the issue of winding up proceedings.

If, however, the shoe is on the other foot and you are being pursued for the payment of a debt we can advise you on the best way of defending a claim, submitting a counterclaim or, if applicable, regarding bankruptcy and winding up proceedings.  We can also deal with the relevant court proceedings on your behalf.

One of our Partners, Gillian Danger, deals with this area of work:-

Gillian trained in London at Wilde Sapte (now Dentons), qualified as a solicitor in 1984, joined the firm in 1985 when it was Rooks Rider and was a founding partner when their two local offices became Tinklin Springall in 1988.  She has over 38 years’ experience in this area of law.

 

Our charges

We currently charge at £285.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) per hour for a partner to carry out work on such claims and £150.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) per hour for a paralegal or trainee solicitor.  The exact amount charged depends upon the amount of time it takes to deal with your matter.  We do not deal with any debt collection matters on a fixed fee basis.

Letter before action

• In many cases all that is required is a letter before action.  If the debtor pays promptly  it will usually take around two to five weeks from your initial instruction to us to receiving payment.  Our minimum charge for work on a letter before action, including taking your brief instructions and to sending a letter and advising you of the response would be an hour’s work at £285.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023)

• If further investigations are required before sending the letter or it is necessary to have a meeting, then the costs will be higher.  The cost of a meeting to discuss the matter would be charged at the hourly rate of £285.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) referred to above.

• We have to undertake searches, such as bankruptcy or Land Registry searches. Bankruptcy searches would be charged at £2.00 per search and Land Registry  at £3.00 each plus £3.00 for a file plan.  There is no VAT applicable.

 

After letter before action

• If the debtor does not pay the debt due and disputes the amount it may be necessary to enter into negotiations with the debtor or their solicitors.  This could take around four to ten weeks.

• The cost of negotiations would depend upon the complexity of the situation and the amount of correspondence involved.  As a typical guide the costs could vary between £500.00 plus VAT and £1,700.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023)

• We will make very effort on your behalf to settle matters before commencing court proceedings and will advise you of the cost/benefit advantages and disadvantages of issuing such proceedings.

Assessment of your case

• If it is not possible to negotiate a settlement and you wish to issue court proceedings then, depending upon the complexity of the case, we would have to review all papers and prepare the court proceedings.  The amount of time that it would take to assess your case and to prepare the Particulars of Claim would depend upon the complexity of your case.  As a guide, it could take us one to three weeks to assess your case and prepare the Particulars of Claim depending upon the complexity.

• Our fees for assessing your case and preparing the Particulars of Claim will be in addition to the costs mentioned above for a letter before action and any negotiations.  Depending upon the complexity of the claim, these costs would be between £500.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) for a straightforward case and around £1,500.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) for a more complicated matter.

• In many cases, where there is a complex dispute, Counsel may need to be instructed to draft the pleadings.  Counsel’s fees could be in the region of £750.00 plus VAT to £1,750.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) .

Issuing Claims

In addition to paying our costs for the preparation of the claim it is also necessary to pay a court fee and the amount of the fee would depend upon the claim.  Below is a table setting out the court fees you would need to pay.

Value of Claim	Fee payable
Up to £300.00	£35.00
£300.00 to £500.00	£50.00
£500.00 to £1,000.00	£70.00
£1,000.00 to £1,500.00	£80.00
£1,500.00 to £3,000.00	£115.00
£3,000.00 to £5,000.00	£205.00
£5,000.00 to £10,000.00	£455.00
£10,000.00 to £200,000.00	£5% of value of the claim
Greater than £200,000.00	£10,000.00

 

Following court proceedings – Debtor admits the debt.

• If, upon receipt of the court proceedings, the debtor admits the debt, we can apply for a default judgment.  As the amount of time that it takes each court to issue the proceedings can vary, this would usually take around two to six weeks (depending upon the court).  If the debtor does not respond to the claim or file an acknowledgement of service, or admits the claim we can apply for a default  judgment to be entered against them.

• Our costs are likely to be in the region of £150.00 plus VAT to £275.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) for applying for the judgment and any necessary correspondence.

Disputed matter

• Claims are generally allocated to the Small Claims Court where the claim is under £10,000.00.  In such cases, even if you are successful with our claim you will generally not recover any costs from the  debtor apart from the court fee and a small element of fixed costs.

• If the debtor files a defence and a court hearing is required, it would usually take between three to  months from the filing of the defence in the Small Claims Court for the matter to reach a court hearing.

• In such cases our costs will vary depending upon how much work you require us to undertake and whether you require representation at the court hearing. Dealing with the court documents and the preparation of a court bundle can take some time, as many small claims matters can be complex.

• We would estimate that our costs would be around £2,500.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) to deal with a fairly straightforward case in the Small Claims Court, but a more complex case could be up to £7,000.00 plus VAT (20% as at April 2023) based on our hourly rates.  If the costs are likely to be of this amount, we will advise you of the costs benefit advantages and disadvantages of proceeding.  In many cases, due to the level of costs, clients will represent themselves at a hearing.

• In relation to claims on the fast track or multi track (being complex cases with a value of £10,000.00) we will provide you with a cost estimate as we proceed.  All estimates would be based on our hourly rates, both for partners and for paralegal/trainee solicitors, who would deal with the preparation of bundles and other work.

Enforcement of judgment

• If the action is not contested, we can proceed with enforcement action.  There are various options for enforcement, such as bankruptcy, charging orders, orders to attend court for questioning, third party debt orders and statutory demand and bankruptcy orders.  An estimate of the costs and the fees involved will be given once judgment has been obtained.

For more information, please contact us using the enquiry form.