Our Fees

Our current hourly rates that apply to office hours are:

These costs apply where your claim is in relation to an unpaid invoice which is not disputed and enforcement action is not needed. If the other party disputes your claim at any point, we will discuss any further work required and provide you with revised advice about costs if necessary, which could be on a fixed fee (e.g. if a one-off letter is required), or an hourly rate if more extensive work is needed. These costs are fixed save where indicated with an “*”.

Debt value Court fee Our fee (incl. VAT)
Up to £5,000 £35 to £205 £250 (plus VAT of £50)
£5,001 – £10,000 £455 £500 (plus VAT of £100)
£10,001 – £25,000 5% value of the claim £1,000 (plus VAT of £200)
£25,001 – £100,000 5% value of the claim
£1,000 to £3,000 (plus VAT of £200 to £600)*

Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:

The VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from your debtor in certain circumstances.
Interest and compensation may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost.
The costs quoted above are not for matters where enforcement action, such as the bailiff, is needed to collect your debt.
Our fee includes:

Taking your instructions and reviewing documentation
Undertaking appropriate searches
Sending a letter before action
Receiving payment and sending onto you, or if the debt is not paid, drafting and issuing claim
Where no Acknowledgement of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgement in default
When Judgement in default in received, write to the other side to request payment
If payment is not received within 28 days, providing you with advice on next steps and likely costs
Matters usually take 1 to 4 months 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.

* This is a range and hourly rates apply and the advisor dealing with the matter will be identified depending on the complexity of the matter and value of the claim.

Litigation rarely lends itself to fixed fees. However, our ethos is to be as competitively priced as possible and we have formulated many Debt Recovery and Landlord and Tenant services where we charge fixed fees.

For other areas of litigation we would be pleased to offer a service where you could pay for a fixed period of time based upon our hourly rates. For example, if you wish to instruct a junior member of our team to review/check papers that you have drafted for a small claims hearing where you wish to conduct the matter yourself, you could pay for say an hour (or part of an hour) of Trainee Solicitor’s time.

Our approach is to be as versatile and adaptable to our clients’ needs and so if you wish to enquire whether we can offer a fixed fee for any aspect of your litigation matter please contact us.

This is also known as ‘no win no fee’ work.

We can conduct work under a ‘conditional fee agreement’ where the circumstances of the case merit so. Your case will be referred to our funding panel to see if our management team finds that conducting the case under a ‘conditional fee arrangement’ is viable.

For more information please contact us.

Insurance:

In certain cases you may be covered by legal expenses insurance which covers your legal costs. Legal expenses insurance is often included in household or motoring insurance. In particular cases it may be appropriate to purchase specialist type insurance called ‘after the event’ insurance – this normally goes hand in hand with a ‘conditional fee arrangement’ – a detailed explanation of the mechanics of this type of funding is required and we would be pleased to discuss this with you over a no obligation telephone call.

Statute:

In some matters, legal costs may be met through funding that is permitted to by virtue of a statutory provision. For example in some Trusts and Probate Disputes and claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Families and Dependants) Act 1975, an application may be made to the Court under section 5 of that Act for an ‘interim order’ which directs that a party may be paid out of an estate pending the final resolution of a matter.

The situations in which this type of funding may apply are highly specialist and we would be pleased to discuss this further with you.