Our Fees

The fees set out below under “Fees and Disbursements” cover the work required to recover your undisputed business to business debt up to the value of £100,000.

For debts in excess of this amount, business to consumer debts or for less straightforward debts, please contact us for a tailored estimate. For less straightforward debts, we mean debts that are disputed, involve complex terms or where recovery or enforceability is uncertain.

Debt recovery is very much dependant on the facts of each case. It is, therefore, important that you provide us with as much information as possible at the outset. Upon an initial review of the documentation, we will be in a position to advise whether the pricing structure set out below will be applicable to your debt recovery matter or whether a more detailed estimate will need to be provided to you. We will give you as much information as practicable regarding our fees and disbursements at the outset and throughout our instructions.

Fees and Disbursements

The below costs apply where your business is owed monies by one other party pursuant to an unpaid invoice/s which is/are not disputed.

Professional Fees*

	Debt value up to £10,000	Debt value £10,001- £25,000	Debt value £25,001 to £100,000
Drafting and sending an initial letter to the debtor (letter before action)	£235 plus VAT charged at 20%	£350 plus VAT charged at 20%	£470 plus VAT charged at 20%
Drafting and issuing court proceedings	£550 plus VAT charged at 20%	£610 plus VAT charged at 20%	£705 plus VAT charged at 20%
Serving the proceedings on the debtor	£50 plus VAT charged at 20%	£70 plus VAT charged at 20%	£70 plus VAT charged at 20%
Preparing and filing at Court a request for judgment in default	£50 plus VAT charged at 20%	£100 plus VAT charged at 20%	£100 plus VAT charged at 20%
Serving the judgment in default on the debtor	£50 plus VAT charged at 20%	£50 plus VAT charged at 20%	£50 plus VAT charged at 20%
TOTAL	£935 plus VAT charged at 20%	£1,180 plus VAT charged at 20%	£1,395 plus VAT charged at 20%

Disbursements

The above fee estimate does not include the following disbursements:

• the court fee which would be payable upon issuing your claim at Court. The court fee that is payable is based upon the value of your claim including interest and compensation, if applicable. As a guide, for claims with a value up to £10,000 the court fee will range from £35 to £455. For claims with a value of £10,001 to £200,000 the court fee is 5% of the value of the claim. For further details of the court fee, please click here.
• any Counsel’s fees.
• any other disbursements such as a photocopying charges, bank charges or process server fees (if required).

Further work

If your debt becomes disputed, more extensive work is needed or payment negotiations are required for example, this additional work will be charged at the relevant fee earner’s hourly rate. Please see below for details of our rates. We will inform you as soon we become aware that further work will be required outside of the fee estimates given above.

How long will it take?

The whole process from receipt of instructions to obtaining a Judgment in Default is likely to take approximately 14 – 16 weeks, if the debtor does not respond. The length of time very much depends on how quickly the Court can process our paperwork. If enforcement action is needed following service of the Judgment in Default, the matter will take longer to resolve.

Stages of the process

The stages involved in recovering an undisputed business to business debt will generally be as follows:

• Take your instructions
• Send out client care information to you
• Review documents/correspondence and any other relevant information to your case
• Take your further instructions on any points arising from our review of your case
• Prepare and send a Pre-Action Protocol compliant letter before claim
• If a response if received, report to you and take your further instructions
• If no response is received, and if so instructed, prepare draft court proceedings
• Issue proceedings, if instructed, at the Civil National Business Centre, at this point a court fee will be payable
• Receive sealed proceedings from the Court and prepare a covering letter and accompanying papers (called a Response Pack) ready for service upon the defendant
• Serve the court proceedings upon the defendant
• Await a response from the defendant
• If the defendant responds to service of proceedings with a payment proposal/timetable, take your instructions thereon and seek to document any agreement reached.
• If the defendant does not respond within the set timeframe, and if so instructed, applying to the County Court Money Claims Centre for a Judgment in Default
• Receive Judgment from the Court and serve upon the defendant
• If the defendant responds to service of Judgment with a payment proposal/timetable, take your instructions thereon and seek to document any agreement reached
• If payment is not received from the defendant following service of the Judgment, we will advise on the enforcement options available to you and the associated costs.

We will keep you updated throughout all stages of the above process.

*Our professional fee estimates above assume that

• The debt is an undisputed business to business debt
• The claim will be issued in the Civil National Business Centre
• There is one defendant who based within the UK
• No additional correspondence is needed with the debtor. If so, additional charges will apply based upon our hourly rates and we will notify you in advance.

Our litigation department is made up of Simon Rawlins, George Masefield, Hannah Slaughter and Clare Birch-Palmer. All matters are supervised by George Masefield, Partner and Head of Litigation. Please visit our People page to find out more about the team. https://www.bracherrawlins.co.uk/people/

Name	Role	Number of Years Qualified	Hourly Rate
Simon Rawlins	Consultant	20+ years PQE	£505.00 plus VAT (20%)
George Masefield	Partner and Head of Department	13 years PQE	£375.00 plus VAT (20%)
Hannah Slaughter	Senior Associate	10 years PQE	£330.00 plus VAT (20%)
Clare Birch-Palmer	Solicitor	1+ year PQE	£235.00 plus VAT (20%)
N/A	Paralegal	N/A	£160.00 plus VAT (20%)