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Debt recovery fees
The cost of pursuing a debt will always depend on the facts of the individual case. It will depend principally on whether the debt is disputed or not. We do not undertake debt collection work on a fixed cost basis.
Typically, our charges are calculated by reference to an hourly rate for work undertaken. This is with exception of cases of particularly high value or complexity, in which case a value element is also charged.
The hourly rates will vary according to the experience and qualifications of the staff member carrying out the work, and also the complexity and urgency of the work required.
Hourly rates from:
£200 per hour for paralegals, legal assistants & trainee solicitors -undertaking simple uncontested debt collection work
£280 – £350 per hour for solicitors – for more complex cases
All charges are subject to the addition of vat @ 20%.
Before we commence work, we will agree what work we are undertaking for you. We will also provide you with details of who will be handling the matter, their qualifications, the applicable hourly rate(s), estimate of charges, details of the disbursements and a timescale estimate.
Keys stages
Our charges are likely to be as follows (all charges are plus vat):
• £200 to £350 for an initial consultation to review paperwork, take instructions and advise you on your position
• £250 to £500 for sending a letter before action and dealing with correspondence pre-action
• £300 to £750 for preparing the court papers and issuing proceedings
• £750 to £1250 for progressing the case to trial
• £500 to £1000 for dealing with the trial
Recovering debts of more than £10,000 upto £100,000
in these cases, the legal fees incurred can be recovered from the losing party – the debtor. Therefore, we are able to offer a wider range of funding options and charging scales. What we are able to offer you will depend on the particular circumstances of your case.
Our fees on average for this type of case can be:
- Between £2,500 and £5,000 plus vat @ 20% – based on £3,750 = 18 – 19 hours on a parallegal at £200 per hour
• between £5,000 and £50,000 plus vat @ 20% if the matter is more complex – based on £27,500 = 98 hours on a solicitors fees at £280 per hour.
If the case becomes particularly complex there is a possibility that fees could exceed £50,000 but we will give detailed advice and guidance on costs if that is likely to be the case.
Based on our hourly charging rates of between £200 and £350 per hour plus vat @ 20%, depending on who is dealing with your case.
In some cases, we may also be able to offer a conditional fee agreement, which is a form of “no win no fee” arrangement. In this type of funding arrangement, we would recover our fees from the opposing party if your claim is successful and if your claim is unsuccessful you would pay us a fixed sum for our costs, agreed at the outset of the claim, plus vat and disbursements only.
Disbursements
On all costs below vat is charged at the prevailing rate (20%)
A fee is payable to the court on the issue of proceedings. That fee depends on the amount claimed and increases in bands.
if the claim reaches trial, a hearing fee is payable @ nil vat. That fee ranges from:
£35 to £445 for claims up to £10,000.
The fee for fast track/multi-track claims depends on the amount of claim. The fee will be 5% of the total claim. (typically claims between £10,000 and £200,000)
Details of court fees may be found on hm court and tribunal service website at the link below:
On all costs below vat is charged at the prevailing rate (20%)
It may also be necessary to incur barrister’s fees, either where the claim is particularly complex or where it involves attendance at trial or at a hearing out of the area (if the claim is transferred to the defendant’s home county court). Barrister’s fees will depend on the nature of the claim and the work that they are asked to carry out.
They are typically calculated by reference to an hourly rate and will range from:
barrister to from £200 to £550 depending on experience of barrister. These prices are subject to vat @ 20%.
Where there are specific technical issues that require an expert witness to provide evidence to assist the court in determining them, there may also be additional expert’s fees. These depend very heavily on the nature of the expert required and are generally determined by the amount of time that the expert takes in preparing their report. It’s therefore very difficult to generalise about the likely scale of those costs. We would always seek to obtain a quote from an expert before instructing them on your behalf.
Matters usually take 3-6 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 judgement in default. If enforcement action is needed, the matter will take longer to resolve.