Despite your best efforts, contested claims can’t always be avoided. Often the defence will be spurious or weak and can sometimes be designed just to further delay payment.
Normally claims of less than £5,000 are allocated to the Small Claims Track where the Court does not usually order a losing party to pay the winning party’s costs. The only costs which can be recovered are the Court fees and fixed solicitors costs for issuing the claim, plus limited witness expenses.
Where possible, and to maximise cost recovery, we use the Civil Procedure Rules to make applications to strike out the defence or for summary judgment.
We understand that the issue of costs can discourage clients from pursuing these claims, although this may send the wrong signal to customers. To minimise your exposure to costs, contested matters are handled by our Debt Recovery Department, rather than being transferred to our Litigation and Dispute Resolution department. As such, we will always work with you to try to keep your legal costs to a minimum.