Debt Collection Solicitors

DEBT COLLECTION SOLICITORS

Debt collection solicitors are specialist debt recovery lawyers that recover unpaid debts on behalf their clients. 

Bennett Williams Solicitors is a multi-award winning firm of debt collection solicitors.  What sets us apart from other UK debt recovery law firms is our specialist knowledge, our fixed fee pricing structure and our approach to customer service.

If you would like to find out more about our debt recovery service, please click here.  Our prices start at just £3.00 plus VAT for a debt recovery solicitors’ letter.

If you would like to instruct us straight away, please click on the following link to open an account.  

On this page of our website, you can find out more about the work of UK debt recovery lawyers and in particular:

• Business debt collection solicitors.
• Personal debt collection solicitors.
• No win, no fee debt collection solicitors.
• Instructing debt collection solicitors.
• How debt collection solicitors can help.
• The benefits of instructing debt recovery solicitors.
• Choosing debt recovery lawyers in the UK.

BUSINESS DEBT COLLECTION SOLICITORS

Business debt collection solicitors can help you to recover an unpaid debt from a business that owes you money.  This will usually be in the form of unpaid invoices.

HOW DO I RECOVER A DEBT FROM A BUSINESS CUSTOMER WHO IS A PARTNERSHIP OR LIMITED COMPANY?

You can recover a business debt from a customer who is a partnership or a limited company by taking the following steps:

1. Get your paperwork in good order.  Gather together copies of the outstanding invoice(s) and produce an up-to-date statement of account.
2. Identify the type of entity that owes you money.  Typically, your customer will either be a partnership, a limited liability partnership or a limited company.  You can find out this sort of information from the Companies House website.
3. Send a debt recovery solicitors’ letter giving your customer 7 days to pay.
4. Issue a debt claim at court to recover the money owed to you.  Your customer will have 14 days to respond.
5. Request a CCJ and instruct bailiffs or High Court Enforcement Officers to enforce the CCJ if your customer still does not pay.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RECOVER A BUSINESS DEBT?

How much it costs to recover a business debt will depend upon whether court action is necessary.  If you do not have to take your customer to court, the costs you incur will be limited to the cost of sending a letter before action.  If you do have to take your customer to court, you will also incur court fees and legal fees if you choose to instruct a lawyer.  If you instruct Bennett Williams Solicitors, our fees will be calculated with reference to our Price List.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO RECOVER A BUSINESS DEBT?

How long it takes to recover a business debt will depend upon whether the debt is admitted or disputed.  If the debt is admitted, recovery might take up to 3 months.  If the debt is disputed, recovery could take a lot longer, possibly as long as 12 to 18 months.

PERSONAL DEBT COLLECTION SOLICITORS

Personal debt collection solicitors can help you to recover unpaid debt from an individual or a sole trader.

HOW DO I RECOVER A DEBT FROM AN INDIVIDUAL OR A SOLE TRADER?

You can recover debt from an individual or a sole trader by:

1. Sending a letter of claim.  We refer to this as a ‘pre-action protocol letter‘.
2. Issuing a court claim.
3. Requesting a county court judgment.
4. Enforcing the county court judgment in order to force the individual or sole trader to pay.  There are various types of enforcement action that are available to you.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RECOVER A DEBT FROM AN INDIVIDUAL OR A SOLE TRADER

The cost of recovering a debt from an individual or a sole trader could be more than the cost of recovering a debt from a partnership or a company.  The court fees payable will be the same but more work may be required of your lawyers if the case takes longer than expected to reach a conclusion.    

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO RECOVER A DEBT FROM AN INDIVIDUAL OR A SOLE TRADER?

It generally takes longer to recover a debt from an individual or a sole trader than it does from a partnership or a limited company.  If the debt is not disputed, it might take up to 6 months.  If the debt is disputed, it could take up to 2 years.

NO WIN, NO FEE DEBT COLLECTION SOLICITORS

No win, no fee debt collection solicitors operate on the basis that they only get paid if you do too.  This might be by taking a percentage of the amount that is collected or alternatively by way of something called a conditional fee agreement.  These types of fee arrangements are usually accompanied by after the event legal insurance.

INSTRUCTING DEBT COLLECTION SOLICITORS

When your own attempts to collect an unpaid debt have been exhausted, it makes great sense to outsource collection to a well established firm of debt collection solicitors. 

The benefits of outsourcing collection of a debt to a debt collection solicitor are clear.  Outsourcing will enable you to focus on your core business activities.  It will improve efficiency.  It will help you to cut costs, make savings and it will give you an important advantage over your competitors.

Instructing debt collection solicitors does not have to be complicated.  It’s quite easy, when you know how.

In the following paragraphs, we will attempt to show you how debt collection solicitors can help, the benefits of instructing debt collection solicitors and provide you with tips on how to choose a debt collection solicitor.

HOW DEBT COLLECTION SOLICITORS CAN HELP

Debt collection solicitors can help you to undertake a variety of tasks.  They can send a letter before action, a late payment letter or a pre-action protocol letter on your behalf.  They can help you to issue court action.  Finally, they can advise you on the various methods of enforcement action that are available if you obtain a judgment (CCJ) against the individual or organisation that owes you money. 

The ultimate aim of all of these processes is to force your customer to pay you as soon as possible and at minimal cost.

We will now go on to outline the benefits of instructing debt collection solicitors.

THE BENEFITS OF INSTRUCTING DEBT RECOVERY SOLICITORS

Instructing a well established firm of debt recovery solicitors can deliver many benefits.  The obvious ones can be summarised, as follows: 

1. DEBT RECOVERY SOLICITORS CAN SAVE YOU TIME

Time is money.  It is also the most important commodity to any person engaged in the running of a business.  Debt recovery solicitors can save you time because they can take on day-to-day responsibility for collecting unpaid debts on your behalf.  Persuading customers to pay unpaid invoices is time consuming and it can reduce the amount of time you have available to work on your business and increase it profitability.

2. DEBT RECOVERY SOLICITORS CAN SAVE YOU MONEY

Outsourcing collection of a debt to a firm of debt recovery solicitors can save you money in that you will not be required to pay an employee to deal with the problem.  Instructing recovery solicitors as and when you need them will also allow you to budget and set limits on the amount of money you are willing to spend in pursuit of an unpaid debt.

3. DEBT RECOVERY SOLICITORS CAN GIVE YOU PEACE OF MIND

By instructing debt recovery solicitors, you can gain peace of mind – safe in the knowledge that you will now be receiving help from an expert.  If a particular problem with an unpaid debt has been keeping you awake at night, a debt recovery solicitor can take that weight off your shoulders.  As the saying goes, “a problem shared is a problem halved”.

CHOOSING DEBT RECOVERY LAWYERS IN THE UK

When choosing a debt recovery lawyer in the UK, you should consider the following matters:

1. MAKE SURE YOUR DEBT RECOVERY LAWYER IS REGULATED

All debt recovery lawyers must be regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.  You can check if a firm of debt collection solicitors is regulated by visiting The Law Society’s ‘Find a Solicitor‘ website.

The Law Society’s Find a Solicitor website is a very useful resource providing businesses and members of the public with vital information about debt recovery lawyers.  For example, the website allows you to find out a firm’s SRA number.  It also gives contact details, information about areas of practice, office facilities and the people employed by that organisation.

Debt collection solicitors must adhere to a strict set of professional rules, namely the SRA Standards and Regulations (including the SRA Codes of Conduct).

2. CHOOSE A SPECIALIST DEBT COLLECTION LAWYER

Using specialist debt recovery lawyers as opposed to general practitioners will typically improve your prospects of success.  Specialist debt recovery lawyers will have the expert knowledge to deal with difficult situations and tricky legal problems.

3. CHOOSE A FIXED FEE DEBT RECOVERY LAWYER

Fixed fee debt recovery lawyers will, in many cases, work out cheaper than solicitors who charge in accordance with the amount of time they spend working on a case.  You will find out how much money you are likely to spend at the start of your case and there are unlikely to be any unexpected bills you had not budgeted for.

All debt collection solicitors in the UK are subject to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Price Transparency Rules.  Consequently, with effect from 6 December 2018, all solicitors have been required to publish details of their prices in certain areas of law, including the work of debt collection lawyers.

As a result, debt collection solicitors must:

• Provide a total cost and if this is not possible, provide an average range of costs.
• Explain the basis of their charges, including any hourly rate or fixed fees.
• Highlight likely disbursements and their cost.
• Be clear of whether VAT is added.
• For conditional or damage-based fees, explain when clients may have to make payment.

4. CHOOSE A DEBT RECOVERY LAWYER WITH A GOOD REPUTATION

It goes without saying that you should choose a debt recovery lawyer with a good reputation because past performance is often a useful indicator of future results.

A simple search of Google should highlight any adverse news stories and a firm’s Google Business Profile will often display reviews from customers and clients who have first hand experience of utilising a firm’s services.  In addition to Google reviews, many debt collection solicitors now have Trust Pilot ratings or ratings on other directory websites.

Successful firms will often also have been commended for their excellent work with awards from industry bodies and testimonials from happy clients.  Case studies also provide an illuminating insight into a debt collection solicitor’s methods of working and approach to recovering payment of unpaid debts.

5. CHOOSE A DEBT RECOVERY LAWYER YOU CAN TRUST

In a solicitor/client relationship, trust is everything.  When choosing a debt recovery lawyer, you should, therefore, find an individual or a firm that you can rely upon to act in your best interests and the best interests of your business.  A debt collection solicitor you can trust will provide you with honest and commercially focused advice that is designed to deliver the best possible results in the individual circumstances of your case.

Please note: to access our services, you will need to open an account.  You can do this by completing the form on the open an account page of our website.  On receipt of your application, we will set you up as a debt recovery client and then contact you to explain what will happen next.  Alternatively, for general enquiries, please contact us.  If you would like to speak to one of our advisors, please call: 0151 650 6908.  We very much look forward to working with you.

If you would like any further information about our services, you can find out more by clicking on the following link – which will take you to our main debt recovery page.