expertise: commercial disputes management
debt
recovery faq's
Do I need to send a letter before action (LBA) before issuing proceedings?
If you do not an LBA you run a serious risk of not being able to claim back your costs
On any subsequent court action taken. If the defendant claims that they would have
Paid their debt on receipt of an LBA, then in most cases they will escape having to
Pay the court costs and you will have to bear them. The LBA has been sent but the debtor has not responded, what happens now?
This is the stage where we can issue court proceedings against the debtor.
We will contact you and ask for instructions to issue proceedings and give you
a forecast of costs. You can always decide at this stage that further action is
not economically viable and we can close our file. What happens if the defendant ignores the Claim Form sent by the Court?
If this happens we can enter Judgement against the defendant in default of their
Response (default judgment), you can then go on to enforce a default Judgment
In the normal way. What happens if the defendant moves address or we can not find them?
We have a number of trace and enquiry agents who we instruct on a regular basis
In these circumstances. I have Judgment against the defendant but they are still not making payments, what now?
You must now enforce the Judgement against the defendant, this can be done in a number of ways,
For more information on enforcing judgements please click here. I think the defendant is hiding information from the court regarding his present financial status,
Can I do anything?
We can apply to the court for the Judge to make an Order for the defendant to attend court for questioning.
The defendant will be ordered to appear in court and provide information on his financial circumstances and
Details of his assets. There is a standard set of questions that the court use, or the claimant may out forward
Their own questions. I am owed money from a company, not an individual, can you still help?
Court proceedings can be issued in the same was as if you are claiming from an individual and you can
Enforce your judgement by way of a High/County Court Writ and seize the assets of the company.
However you can by-pass the issuing of court proceedings and instigate Insolvency proceedings. We can
Serve Statutory demands upon a company and present Winding up Petitions to the court, please contact us
For more information on this process. I am owed money from a debtor who resides/ trades abroad, what can I do?
Martineau is a member of Mulitlaw, a group of select law firms who work together to provide their
Client’s with legal assistance across the world. We have agent lawyers who we can call upon to provide you
With advice and if necessary who can issue court proceedings against the debtor in their country of residence.
There is no provision in my contract for recovery of interest in the event of late payment,
Can I claim interest and costs on the debt?
The Late Payment of commercial Debts Act can be implemented in cases where there is no provision
For the recovery of interest within your contract with the debtor. Late payment interest can be charged
From 30 days after the due date of your invoice up until the date court proceedings are issued. Interest is charged at 8% above the current Bank of England interest rate.
key expertise: Debbie Beet
Senior Associate and Debt Recovery Manager
debbie.beet@martineau-uk.com Andrew Adams
Partner
andrew.adams@martineau-uk.com Giles Parry
Debt Recovery Assistant
giles.parry@martineau-uk.com
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