If the debt remains outstanding after 14 days of sending the Solicitors’ letter the next step is to issue court proceedings. How much this will cost depends on the amount of the claim. A court fee is payable but we help you to minimise this by issuing your claim through the County Court bulk centre. We prepare all of the papers and file them at court on your behalf. Upon receipt of the papers the court will open a file and then send the issued papers to the debtor by normal post. If necessary, we can have the papers issued and sent to the debtor directly.
We offer a fixed fee service for issuing debt recovery claims with a value of up to £25,000 for this stage of the process. Our fees are very competitively structured so that the legal fees that you incur are within the recoverable amount fixed by the Court. Our table of costs shows our fees and the amount allowed for Solicitors’ costs by the Court. The table also shows the current court fees. For example the recoverable legal fee for a claim with a value of £1,000 to £5,000 is fixed at £80. The Court fee for a claim of this value is up to £100.
We calculate the interest due since the debt has been outstanding and we also add that amount to the claim.
Once the proceedings have been issued by the Court, the debtor has three options:
Generally if the debtor does not file a defence by day 14 or by day 28 under one of the options above and if he does not admit the claim either, then we will apply for a County Court Judgment (CCJ) on your behalf.
If the debtor defends the claim then the matter will proceed as a disputed claim. Our debt recovery team will contact you and advise you of the next steps. We will review the defence with you and if there is no valid reason for dispute you may instruct us to proceed with the action. If the debtor has any merit to his dispute then you will have immediate access to our dispute resolution service. You will be advised carefully of your options and the likely costs in going forward.
