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 enquiries@dn-solicitors.co.uk 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 the value of the claim | £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 Judgement
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.
Other costs to consider
The costs set out above do not include enforcement action such as for bailiffs to go out and collect the debt on your behalf.
Key stages of your case
The costs described above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages a debt recovery process:
- Discussing your case with you and, where appropriate, reviewing documents you provide
- Performing relevant checks and searches
- Sending a letter before action (see above)
- Receiving payment and forwarding payment to you or, if a debt is not paid, drafting and issuing court proceedings
- If no response is received, applying to the Court for Judgment in Default, subject to the additional costs for doing so as detailed above being paid;
- If Judgment in Default is received, writing to the other side to demand payment
- If payment is still not received within the specified timescale, providing you with guidance on the next steps and likely costs
It would not normally be necessary to undertake other work or incur costs other than those described above. However, we would be very happy to provide you with a more tailored quote for all stages of your particular case once we know about your specific circumstances.
How long will my case take?
Please see time estimates above for the timescales in each stage of the process. In terms of the overall time the debt recovery will take, if a debt is not disputed, we find that it typically takes about 12 - 16 weeks from sending the letter before action (see above) to receive a Judgment in Default. A debtor with sufficient funds to do so will very often pay upon being sent the Judgment in Default and so matters can quickly be resolved after obtaining a Judgement in Default (within about 30 days).
If the debt is disputed, defended or enforcement action is required, the matter will ordinarily take longer than this to resolve and involve additional costs which will be discussed with you in advance.
Who will be dealing with my case?
Your case will be handled by a trusted member of our experienced team who all qualified as a solicitor or as a barrister. Once we know who will be handling your case for you, we will introduce you to them and provide you with full details of their background and qualifications. Full details of the experience and qualifications of our Dispute Resolution team are below, including the types of work normally undertaken.
Grant James Smith (Consultant Solicitor Advocate)
- Solicitor of England & Wales and accredited Solicitor Advocate
- Date of Admission to the role of Solicitors – 16 th September 2013
- Type of work undertaken: All contentious and non-contentious litigation on behalf of claimants and defendants within the jurisdiction of England & Wales.
Lee James Trubshaw (Consultant Solicitor)
- Solicitor of England & Wales
- Date of Admission to the role of Solicitors – 2 nd November 1998
- Type of work undertaken: All contentious and non-contentious litigation on behalf of claimants and defendants within the jurisdiction of England & Wales.
Gareth-Lee Smith (Consultant Barrister)
- Barrister at Law - England & Wales
- Date of Admission to the Bar – July 2014
- Type of work undertaken: All contentious and non-contentious litigation on behalf of claimants and defendants within the jurisdiction of England & Wales.
Samantha Jane Quinn (Consultant Solicitor Advocate)
- Solicitor of England & Wales and accredited Solicitor Advocate
- Date of Admission to the role of Solicitors - 15 th March 2019
- Type of work undertaken: All contentious and non-contentious litigation on behalf of claimants and defendants within the jurisdiction of England & Wales
Regardless of who is working on your case the matter will be supervised by one of our partners:
Sanjay Nena (Partner)
- Solicitor of England & Wales
- Date of Admission to the role of Solicitors - 15 th October 2004
- Type of work undertaken: All contentious and non-contentious employment law related matters on behalf of employers and employees within the jurisdiction of England & Wales
Jaskaran Singh Dhillon (Partner)
- Solicitor of England & Wales
- Date of Admission to the role of Solicitors - 15 th October 2007
- Type of work undertaken: Matrimonial, Family and Child Law.
