Debt Collection

If you are owed a debt, service charges or money on an invoice, prompt collection of it is vital to your business. It therefore requires quick and forceful action with the possible assistance of court proceedings to force payment from your debtor.

There are two main ways in which you can recover a debt -firstly, court proceedings and secondly, by pursuing the bankruptcy/insolvency route.

Court action
This is a three stage process. The first stage is to write a letter before action requiring payment within seven days. If your debtor fails to pay, the second stage is drafting and issuing court proceedings. Once the proceedings have been served by the court your debtor has 28 days to serve a defence. If he does not, then the third stage is to request that the court enter judgment for you. You then have to enforce the judgment and there are various ways in which you can do this. Please see Enforcement of Judgments.

If, on the other hand, your debtor files a defence we will go through the Defence, isolate the issues and work out a plan with you to tackle those issues and reach a successful conclusion to your dispute.

Bankruptcy/Insolvency proceedings
This is the process by which you can make an individual bankrupt or wind up a company (insolvency). The process itself involves the service of a Statutory Demand, issuing and serving a petition and a court hearing. It can however, only be used where the debt is “undisputed”. If there is any possibility that your debt is disputed then we would recommend that you follow the court proceedings route.