We specialise in large scale consumer credit debt recovery litigation and will tailor our approach to suit you.
We do not act for individuals or small businesses, and we do not provide a business-to-business debt recovery service. We act for clients that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
If you wish to instruct Mortimer Clarke Solicitors to act for your company in relation to debt recovery litigation, then please contact Sandra Bayne ([email protected]).
In our experience, most claims which we issue are not defended. We obtain Judgment and then if payment is not made, we can commence enforcement activity, according to our client instructions. There are various methods of enforcement detailed below. The small proportion of cases that are defended are managed by our dedicated defence team. Where the defended claim results in Judgment it can then be enforced via the same methods.
All references to ‘customer’ in our pricing information refers to the debtor.
We can discuss what fee structure is appropriate depending on the value and complexity of your instructions, and on the volume of work you wish to instruct us on.
We would discuss this with you once you have provided us with details of any instructions and the agreed fee would cover all or some of the below depending on your specific requirements.
⦁ Taking your instructions and reviewing the documentation
⦁ Contacting the debtor to seek payment
⦁ Sending a Letter before Claim
⦁ Receiving payment and sending onto you, or if the debt is not paid, drafting and issuing a County court claim
⦁ Where no Acknowledgment of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgment in default
⦁ Where a Defence is received, applying to the court for summary judgment or proceeding to a small claims hearing
⦁ When Judgment in default in received, writing to the other side to request payment
⦁ Enforcement proceedings where the Judgment has not been paid
Details of our usual fees and pricing are included below along with details of disbursements and common costs.
We will usually issue a claim 33 days after sending a Letter Before Claim. If the other side does not respond to the court proceedings, judgment in default can be requested approximately 15 days after the claim has been served. We will then ask the other side to make payment. If enforcement action is needed, the matter will take longer to resolve.
Disputed claims can take up to 12-18 months to resolve.
Common Enforcement Proceedings following an unpaid judgment include:
Disbursements
Your instructions may attract legal disbursements. These are costs which have to be paid to a third party which we pay on your behalf – e.g. Court fees, Land Registry fees or even Counsel’s fees.
Court fees which apply at the time are set out in the EX50 publication (“Civil and Family Courts Fees”) issued by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The link to this publication is:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fees-in-the-civil-and-family-courts-main-fees-ex50
These fees do increase from time to time. If you do consider instructing this firm we can provide tailored illustrations of likely disbursement costs based on your specific requirements.
Please note with Charging Order there are other disbursements alongside the court fee, these include Land Registry fees such as searches, court representation and process server fees. We set out an estimate of these below, but please note these are subject to change.
Charging Order – Official Copies £7 and Registration Fee £20
OUR FEES/PRICING EXAMPLES
Our proposed pricing model includes a fee of between 15-20% of any recoveries made before court proceedings are issued, and also for us to charge you solicitors’ fixed costs in accordance with Part 45 of the Civil Procedure Rules https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part45-fixed-costs
Solicitors’ fixed costs are the costs which are awarded by the Court in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules for work undertaken in Court proceedings. The amount of such costs is usually determined by the amount of the Claim. Our proposed pricing model provides for you to pay us these solicitors’ fixed costs, at the point at which the particular stage is reached (i.e. on issue of claim/entry of judgment/issue of enforcement action).
These fees may increase from time to time. If you do consider instructing this firm we can provide tailored illustrations of likely disbursement costs based on your specific requirements.
There are no fixed solicitors’ cost in Part 45 of the Civil Procedure Rules for Attachment of Earnings applications. We would usually charge £100.00 for this enforcement.
Bespoke enforcement options can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
VAT
What VAT do we charge and when:
Disbursements – VAT is not paid by us when we issue Court claims or applications and therefore, in respect of Court fees, our invoices do not seek recovery of VAT.
Solicitors’ Fixed Costs – any award by the Court is net of VAT – it is the net figure which is added to the judgment debt. The Solicitors’ Fixed Costs element of any invoice rendered by us to a client will include an additional element relating to VAT.
Our fixed fees – any invoice rendered by us to a client will include an additional element relating to VAT on the fixed fees agreed.
Disbursements (Court representation fees) – these are disbursements because we incur these costs on your behalf. Generally speaking they are incurred in defended litigation – please see below.
Anyone wishing to proceed with a claim should note that:
⦁ The VAT element of our fee cannot be reclaimed from the customer.
⦁ Interest may take the debt into a higher banding, with a higher cost.
Below are some working examples of our charges for acting in relation to an undisputed debt Our estimates below only go up to £15,000 because most of the debts that we are instructed to recover are under this level.
The costs above apply where your claim is not defended. There will be additional costs if we manage a defended case on your behalf.
We have a specialist Defended Litigation team that manages any defended claims. They have many years’ experience managing consumer credit defended litigation. The team includes paralegals, a Team Manager and a Solicitor with over 10 years PQE.
Day to day management of the team is undertaken by the Team Manager with support from a Solicitor. The Defended Litigation team as a whole is supervised by our Principal Solicitor who has more than 20 years PQE.
The Defended Litigation team will attempt to obtain Summary Judgment on defended claims based on your instructions. They will also, where instructed, oppose applications to set aside Judgments.
If a Summary Judgment application is unsuccessful or if the Judgment is set aside following a customer’s successful application, the Defended Litigation team will seek further instructions on the next steps regarding the claim.
The amount of work undertaken and time it takes to proceed with a claim depends on a variety of aspects, including the nature of the defence and the evidence/documentation available.
Where there is a court hearing, the timeframe for this depends on court availability as well as directions set by the court, which in turn depends on the track the claim is allocated to.
The Defended Litigation team will usually instruct advocates to attend court hearing on your behalf, depending on your instruction. As a rough estimate, it could take 12-18 months to resolve a defended litigation claim, or even longer depending on court availability,
Costs of Defended Litigation
The costs which we charge depend on the volume and complexity of your instructions.
For small claims matters (less than £10,000.00 in value) we may charge a fixed fee of £500 (plus VAT) for dealing with a defence all the way to a hearing, which would be broken down as follows:
In the unlikely event that a defended case falls into a track other than Small Claims (over £10,000.00) we would discuss the costs of acting on a case-by-case basis and using the CPR as guidance
Disbursements in Defended cases
Court Hearing fees vary depending on the value of the matter. Current fees can be found here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fees-in-the-civil-and-family-courts-main-fees-ex50
These fees may increase from time to time. If you do consider instructing this firm we can provide tailored illustrations of likely disbursement costs based on your specific requirements
Application and advocacy costs will vary but as an indicative figure for a usual defended scenario in the small claims track:
For a Summary Judgment application – court fee £321, court representation £210+VAT
For a Set aside Judgment application – court representation £170+VAT
For a standard Small Claims Hearing – court representation £325+VAT.
From time to time and matter to matter costs will change and we can provide tailored illustrations of likely disbursement costs based on your specific requirements
We specialise in consumer credit debt recovery litigation and will tailor our approach to suit you. We have a comprehensive knowledge of the regulatory framework in which financial institutions operate, and place compliance at the heart of the work that we do. We ensure that we work in accordance with all current guidance and legislation.
Mortimer Clarke Solicitors Limited is part of the Cabot Credit Management Group of Companies and is an encore capital group company. We are the only member of the Group which is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority No.622915. Our professional rules can be accessed at rules.sra.org.uk. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our Financial Services Register number is 912356. You can check this on the Financial Services Register by visiting the FCA’s website www.fca.org.uk/register
