Our Services
Our Services - Debt Recovery, Commercial Litigation and Insolvency
SERVICES
Appleton Massey is a law firm specializing in Debt Recovery, Commercial Litigation and Insolvency.
Our lawyers have extensive knowledge and experience in dealing with Commercial client and understand the challenges faced on a day to day basis.
Our aim is to assist you to increase your cashflow and enable you to spend your time on building your business rather than worrying about how to collect debts for the work that you have done for your clients and customers.
Each client is treated as an individual and a collection strategy is devised for each client, according to their needs, the nature of the business, the nature of their customers/clients etc. After all, each client, whether it is a business or an individual, is unique, with its own issues.
Having said that, each industry has it's own characteristics, and our lawyers have extensive experience across a broad range of industries.
In order to provide you with a bespoke service, we take the time to understand you and your business and create a strategy for you. The services that the overall strategy involves could include the following:-
PRE-LITIGATION
We understand that you may not always wish to go down the road to court, particularly where you wish to maintain the relationship with a client.
However, there is no doubt that a phone call or letter from a solicitor requesting payment, has an impact as people realize that you are serious if you have instructed a solicitor.
TRACING
Sometimes, it becomes apparent that your Debtor is attempting to avoid that debt and goes missing. We have close links with tracing agents who can carry out a trace in relation to your Debtor. You have the security of knowing that you do not pay a fee unless the trace is positive.
TELEPHONE CALLS
We can telephone your Debtor's on your behalf and collect your debt over the telephone.
PRE-LITIGATION LETTERS
We can either issue a chasing letter following completion of your own letter run or follow up the telephone calls with a letter.
We can suggest a strategy for dealing with your debts which is tailored to your needs.
LITIGATION
Litigation is always commenced by a 7 day Letter Before Action. If no response is received, we will then issue proceedings on your behalf and obtain Judgment for you.
Clearly, if Judgment by default cannot be obtained, or it is not possible to make any applications for Summary Judgment or Strike Out, we will take the matter to trial on your behalf.
When it comes to funding, we understand that litigation is a costly exercise, and we will therefore review the funding options available to you and in particular whether it is possible to obtain insurance for your litigation. We have close links with specialist insurers in litigation funding.
We will always make attempts to settle where appropriate, and of course, in accordance with your instructions.
If mediation is appropriate, we will discuss this option with you.
ENFORCEMENT
Once Judgment has been obtained, if the Debtor still fails to pay, we can carry out all forms of enforcement. These include:
- Warrants of Execution
- Order to obtain information from a judgment debtor
- Attachment of earnings
- Charging orders
- Third party debt orders
INSOLVENCY
We are specialists in insolvency law and can therefore issue Statutory Demands against Debtor's on your behalf, where the debt is in excess of £750 and the debt is not disputed. (In the case of insolvency proceedings against individuals, a bankruptcy petition cannot be issued unless a Statutory Demand has already been personally served on the Debtor and the time for a response has expired, and no satisfactory response has been received).
We will arrange for service of the Demand upon the Debtor as we have close relationships with an extensive network of Process Servers throughout the country.
Where a debt is disputed, insolvency proceedings are not appropriate and litigation is the appropriate course of action.
Bankruptcy Proceedings
Should an individual fail to respond to a Statutory Demand, the next course of action in appropriate cases is a Bankruptcy Petition.
We can issue these on your behalf and obtain an Order. Should the matter become Defended, we will of course deal with the hearing(s) on your behalf.
Once the Order has been obtained, should you wish, we will liaise with the Official Receiver and Trustee in Bankruptcy on your behalf, if you so wish.
Winding Up Proceedings
Where a company owes you in excess of £750 on an undisputed debt, we can issue a 72 hour notice warning of Winding Up Proceedings. Should the company representatives fail to respond satisfactorily, Winding Up Proceedings can be issued.
We will of course deal with these proceedings on your behalf whether the proceedings are Defended or not.
(It should be noted that should a valid Defence become apparent during insolvency proceedings, it may be necessary to withdraw and issue County Court Proceedings.)
POST INSOLVENCY ORDER PROCEEDINGS (ACTIONS UNDER THE INSOLVENCY ACT)
We are able to deal with insolvency actions on behalf of any Trustee in Bankruptcy or Liquidator, ranging from bankruptcy possession actions, income payment orders, transactions at an undervalue, misfeasance, wrongful and fraudulent trading etc.