Our charges:
Our overall fees vary depending upon how complex your case is and what you would like us to do. For a free quote specifically tailored to your circumstances please email [email protected] or telephone 01902 504411. We would be more than happy to discuss your case.
To give you an idea of how we charge however, and to comply the SRA price transparency rules, we have set out below details of our typical charges.
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%. Please note that the VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your debtor.
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 normally takes 7 – 21 days to prepare depending upon the nature of the debt.
Our fees are typically between £500 - £2,000 (plus VAT) and include:
- Taking your instructions and considering relevant documents
- 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 more 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 typical fees for issuing a court claim are below:
| Debt Value | Court Fee | Our fee | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| £3,000 to £5,000 | £205 | £750 (plus VAT) | £955 (plus VAT) |
| £5,000 to £10,000 | £455 | £750 (plus VAT) | £1,205 (plus VAT) |
| £10,000 to £200,000 | 5% of claim value | £750 - £2,500 (plus VAT) | £750 – 2,500 (plus VAT) + 5% of claim value |
| More than £200,000 | £10,000 | £750 - £3,000 (plus VAT) | £10,750 to £13,000 (plus VAT on our fees) |
Court fees do not have VAT.
This stage normally takes 7 – 28 days from receipt of a response to your letter before action from the defendant, 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.
3) Enter Judgment
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 £10,000 | £300 (plus VAT) |
| Over £10,000 | £300 (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 around 28 days 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 and that complexity of the matter:
| Fee Earner | Hourly Rate |
|---|---|
| Partner / Director / Solicitor with 8 years post qualification experience ('PQE') or more | £250 - £350 (plus VAT) |
Please note none of our firm’s solicitors or barrister are less than 8 year post qualification.
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.
Disbursements
You will need to pay for ‘disbursements’ in addition to our costs as described above. In a debt recovery matter the most common disbursement is the Court fee and the cost for these are listed above. If we need to go to Court then a barrister (sometimes called ‘Counsel’) is often used to deal with the hearing. This is not uncommon. Barrister’s fees tend to be in the region of £1,000 - £3,500 (plus VAT) per day plus a brief fee of around £1,500 - £5,000 plus VAT, dependant on the nature and complexity of the debt. We will however guide you on this as and when such costs need to be incurred.
We may instruct third parties (e.g. expert witnesses, anti-money laundering e-verification fees, cost draftsperson) to provide services to you. You are responsible for the sums charged by third parties and their services are provided to you on their terms.
