21/12/2023
Are you looking to collect unpaid invoices or improve your business cash flow by pursuing a small claims case against non-paying clients?
If you’re struggling to get your clients to repay their debts, we can help. All too often you have not been paid for your hard work that your client is now enjoying for free and it's got to stop.
We provide assistance with small claims administration, guidance and support to take the stress out of recovering small claims debts up to £10,000. If you require assistance please email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you promptly.
As costs cannot generally be claimed back in small claims cases it can be very difficult to find legal representation because even if you win your case you cannot claim your legal costs back from the defendant with your damages. In most cases the only option if you require legal representation will be to pay your lawyer hourly rates which soon build up and which you will be extremely unlikely to claim back from an unsuccessful defendant leaving you further out of pocket. The other option is to try and do it all yourself which can be stressful and confusing particularly when dealing with court forms and rules. In reality a lot of people just give up and write off the debt and suffer a financial loss.
We know how difficult it is therefore for tradespeople to enforce their unpaid invoices and we have a great deal of sympathy for you. We do not believe that the current situation is acceptable and question the justice of this system.
We therefore offer a tailored service with low fixed fees which covers pre action support as well as support with a small claim and if necessary enforcement.
Most cases will only require the following steps:-
*1* £110 fixed fee for reviewing your documentation and evidence (for example your correspondence with the client, quotes/estimates and invoice/s that are in dispute) and providing you with a written email with our suggestion as to the appropriate next step you could take. We will also provide you with our Pre Action information sheet free of charge;
*2* £75 fixed fee to prepare a suggested Pre Action Letter of Claim to send to your client before court proceedings can be issued - we will also provide you with our Small Claims information sheet free of charge. We cannot offer our step 2 service unless you have already asked us to carry out step 1 above;
*3* £120 fixed fee for assistance in supporting you when you wish to issue a small claims case online - you will be required to fill a claim form in online and you will need to advise the court of your cause of action which we can assist you with. When you want to issue small claims proceedings we can also advise you of the court fee you will need to pay online. We will also provide you with our Small Claims information sheet free of charge. This fee is reduced to £100 fixed fee if you have already asked us to carry out steps 1 & 2 above. Note that if you want us to review your documentation and evidence and provide you with a written email with our suggestion as to the appropriate next step you could take, you would also need to instruct us to carry out step 1 above.
If you instruct us to carry out step 3, we will provide you with free support in understanding any court orders you receive during the entire litigation process. This is to ensure you understand anything the court has asked of you as well as the defendant. We are happy to explain any court orders to you without charge. We cannot offer this (free) service if we haven't previously assisted you with step 3 and instead charge a fixed fee of £2 per court order that you would like explaining in non legal jargon.
*4* £20 fixed fee for assisting you with your Directions Questionnaire (DQ) - during the small claims process you will be ordered by the court to complete this - it is mandatory and failure to comply with filing this will result in your claim being struck out. You would then have to pay another court issue fee and start a new claim if you wanted to continue pursuing the debt.
We therefore only charge £20 fixed fee to provide you with guidance in completing your DQ online, which is a mandatory document. You will need to send us the Court's order which orders you to file your DQ so that we can guide you in completing it.
Furthermore we can give you guidance with preparing your small claims draft directions to the Court - which should be filed online with your DQ - so you would want to consider what directions you want the court to order before submitting your DQ online. This is particularly important in cases where you want to ask the court to order the defendant to produce a particular piece of evidence, document etc, and so are seeking "specific directions". If you also would like assistance with your draft directions we will only charge you an additional £20 fixed fee.
Note that if the Court has requested PAPER draft directions and DQ's be filed (i.e. a hard copy to be posted to the court instead of online filing) we can provide you with the suggested draft directions on Word instead, which you can send to the Court at the same time you post your DQ.
We cannot offer you our step 4 service of guiding you with preparing your DQ (and also your draft directions if you require this) unless you have previously asked us to carry out step 1 above (as we wouldn't know enough about your case).
*5* £25 fixed fee for assisting you with your witness statement template - we know what makes a witness statement acceptable and can prepare the template using Word for you to complete in your case. If certain requirements are not met then you cannot rely on your witness statement as evidence and the court will either reject it or give it little weight. This service is only to prepare the witness statement template - it does not include preparing your written words within your witness statement as this is something you must do as your witness statement must always be in your own words. We will however send you our free Witness Statement information sheet when we provide you with the template, to assist you in writing your witness statement.
You do not need to have asked us to carry out any previous steps in order to assist you with a witness statement template as step 5 is a stand alone service but you would need to send us a copy of your claim form and the court order which orders you to provide a witness statement (in order for us to have enough information to prepare the witness statement template for you).
*6* Fixed fee of £20 post judgment to guide and support you with how to complete a request for the county court bailiff to enforce the judgment you secured. We will provide you with the required court form and we will send you our free Enforcement of Judgments information sheet when we provide you with the court form, to assist you in completing it.
We will also advise you of the court enforcement fee you will need to pay the court.
Note that you cannot enforce a judgment until payment has not been received for 28 days since the judgment order was made for the defendant to make payment.
You do not need to have asked us to carry out any previous steps in order to use our step 6 service but you would need to send us a copy of the judgment order which orders the defendant to pay you (in order for us to have enough information to assist you).
**Information sheets**
In order to ensure you understand the pre action and small claims process, we have issued a number of electronic information sheets which we hope you will find a useful reference to have. These can be purchased separately at £3 each or all together in a bundle for only £10 and will be supplied to you in electronic format. Note that if you ask us to carry out certain steps above you will also receive the relevant related information sheet free of charge (please refer to the steps above for further information).
A) Pre Action Information
B) Small Claims Information
C) Witness Statement Information
D) Enforcement of Judgments Information
Legal Disclaimer
Whilst we are run by a qualified practising civil litigation lawyer with almost 20 years experience, who also runs a building & carpentry company, we only offer guidance and support with legal administration on pre action and small claims processes and do not offer legal advice or representation nor any guarantees that you will win your case. We do not accept any legal responsibility or liability for the guidance and administrative support services we provide which includes but is not limited to any written information and emails we send to you as well as court documents and forms we provide to you. We are not liable if you lose your case. We do not provide refunds. Our decision is final. If you require legal advice and representation please contact the Law Society to find a suitable legal practice to assist you.
