Costs information

The information on the costs of our debt recovery services set out below apply where you are a business and your claim relates to an invoice or invoices which you have rendered amounting to up to £100,000 in total, which have not been paid and which are not disputed.

For further details of the debt recovery process, please see our Debt Recovery page.

Work prior to the issue of proceedings:

  • For a standard format letter of claim and written notification to you of its despatch – fixed fee of £175 plus VAT.
  • Further emails, letters and telephone calls (both made and received) in connection with your claim prior to the issue of proceedings – fixed fee of £17.50 plus VAT each.

Court proceedings (for undisputed invoices):

Level of claim

Our charges to you for issue of proceedings until just prior to entry of judgment

Court issue fee payable by you for claims issued online

Fixed costs amount claimable from your debtor in addition to the court issue fee

£25 to £300.00

£75.00

£35.00

£50.00

£300.01 to £500.00

£90.00

£50.00

£50.00

£500.01 to £1,000.00

£150.00

£70.00

£70.00

£1,000.01 to £1,500.00

£175.00

£80.00

£80.00

£1,500.01 to £3,000.00

£200.00

£115.00

£80.00

£3,000.01 to £5,000.00

£250.00

£205.00

£80.00

£5,000.01 to £10,000.00

£300.00

£455.00

£100.00

£10,000.01 to £15,000.00

£350.00

5% of the claim value

£100.00

£15,000.01 to £50,000.00

£400.00

5% of the claim value

£100.00

£50,000.01 to £100,000.00

1% of the claim value

5% of the claim value

£100.00

Notes:

  1. The court issue fee (see the third column above) and the fixed amount (see the fourth column above) are added to the amount being claimed by you and are recoverable from the debtor. For example, if the debt is worth £1,200, you will also be entitled to recover the £80.00 court fee and £80.00 in fixed costs making your claim worth £1,360.
  2. Should a claim become disputed/defended in whole or in part, any further work required will be discussed with you and will, unless otherwise agreed, be based on our standard hourly rates, details of which will have been provided to you in connection with you first instructing us.

Judgment:

Our costs of entering judgment on your behalf are also based on fixed charges as detailed below. We will enter judgment, on your instructions, if the claim has been issued and the debtor has failed to respond within the deadline set to do so.

Debt Value:

Default of acknowledgment of service

Default of defence:

Admission (where the Defendant’s proposal are accepted):

Admission (where the court determines the value):

Up to £4,999.99

£25.00 plus VAT

£40.00 plus VAT

£50.00 plus VAT

£70.00 plus VAT

£5,000.00 and above

£35.00 plus VAT

£50.00 plus VAT

£60.00 plus VAT

£80.00 plus VAT

 

Enforcement:

The costs of enforcing a judgment vary depending on the method used in each case. We will discuss these with you if we obtain judgment and the customer still does not pay you.

Depending on the option you choose, it is likely that our costs will be charged in line with our hourly rates. These are subject to review on 1 April each year and currently stand at the below rates:

Title:

Rate:

Partners

£340 plus VAT

Associates

£245 plus VAT

Solicitors

£200 - £225 plus VAT

Paralegals

£175 + VAT

Trainee Solicitors

£165 + VAT

 

When you instruct us, we will provide you with a letter of engagement setting out the hourly rates of the individuals who are likely to work on your matter. We will keep you informed if these change for any reason. If you are a new client, we may also ask you to complete an ID check before instructing us. The cost of this is £10 plus VAT and is not recoverable against your debtor.

Throughout the process of recovering your debt, we may advise you to obtain further information about your debtor, such as whether they own their own property. Any disbursements and expenses we incur as part of this process will be charged to you, plus VAT at the applicable rate.

VAT:

VAT is charged at the then prevailing standard rate of VAT which as at 1 November 2023 is 20%.

Our debt collection team:

The work is primarily carried out by Rachel Emmings, who is an experienced debt collection paralegal, with support from trainee solicitors in our dispute resolution and litigation team.  The work is supervised by our litigation partner, Morgan Rees (solicitor, qualified 2007).

We will confirm with you who will have day-to-day conduct of your debt recovery matter on instruction and will provide you with the specific hourly rates of those likely to be involved in the work.

If there are any further costs points you would like to discuss, please do contact our debt recovery team on 01384 410410.