Debt Recovery

Our dedicated team of qualified Solicitors and Chartered Legal Executives are here to help at every stage and will make the process of enforcing unpaid debts as seamless and pain free as possible.

We recognise all of our clients are individual and have different needs so we tailor our approach to meet your specific requirements.

Your file will be handled by a qualified lawyer and unlike other organisations we do not let unqualified staff run your file.

Following an independent audit we also hold the highest standard available to any law firm, Lexcel, awarded by the Law Society for our commitment to our clients and the quality of our service to them.

Our fees represent the dedicated service you will receive from our experienced and professional team. With offices along the North Yorkshire coast you know we are always available for local appointments to meet your needs. These are some of the things our clients are saying about us:

“I would just like to say that you have dealt with my claim extremely professionally from the beginning. You put legal jargon into simple, understanding terms. I thank you for your care dealing with my claim.” DK

“The support and advise from Mark Jefferies was fantastic and helped us secure the result we needed. Following his advice to the letter, made the procedure in the Small Claims Court straight forward and without doubt put us in a stronger position to make our claim.” DL

Whatever you need we are here for you. Our team has more than 45 years’ of experience between them so you know you are in safe hands all the way. Our team comprises of:

Mark Jefferies - Solicitor

All work in this area will be supervised by Mark Jefferies one of our Directors and also our Head of Civil Litigation department.

When you instruct us to act on your behalf to help collect payment for outstanding debts we will give you a quote based on the exact requirements to meet your needs.

We gave found the fairest way to charge for our support in the debt recovery process is to follow an hourly rate of £250 (+VAT, chaged at the prevailing rate which is currently 20%) as many debts are settled quite early in the process and may require much and take much less than 1 hour.

If the debtor contests the debt or does not engage in the process this can increase costs and we will give you an estimate to complete the work. To give you an indication of fees for each stage of the process please see the table below:

If you would like to discuss your needs with us, please give us a call on 01723 364321, email us on info@thorpeandco.com or complete the form at the bottom of this page.

Our fees include:

Pre-Action

• Taking your instructions;
• Undertaking appropriate searches;
• Sending a letter before action;
• Receiving payment and sending it onto you.

Court Claim

• If the debt is not paid, drafting and issuing claim;
• The debtor must respond within 14 days of the date the Court deems the Claim Forms have been served;
• Where no Acknowledgment of Service or Defence is received, applying to the court to enter Judgement in default;
• Taking your instructions and reviewing documentation;
• Undertaking appropriate searches;
• Receiving payment and sending onto you, or if the debt is not paid, drafting and issuing claim;
• Where no Acknowledgment 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 X days, providing you with advice on next steps and likely costs.

Our estimated fees above do not include occasions where the debt is contested by the debtor, we will update the estimate of costs should this situation arise.

Other fees, paid to third parties and known as disbursements, are not included in the fees above. Please be aware the following disbursements should be added to your budget:

VAT is charged at the prevailing rate currently 20%.

If a Court Claim is made the disbursements and our fees will be added to the outstanding debt.

Matters can take 10-12 weeks from receipt of instructions from you to obtaining judgment but depends on how quickly the Court is able to list your hearing as well as any interaction with the defendant. If enforcement action is needed, the matter will take longer to resolve and, if this happens, we will update you with timescales.

Factors affecting the timescales above include how long it takes to trace the debtor and the Court processing time once a claim has been submitted. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch by telephone on 01723 364321, email, info@thorpeandco.com or fill in the contact form at the bottom of this page.