Member Article

Newcastle lawyers speed up debt recovery

Businesses looking to recover their debts quicker are being offered savings of up to 30% on Court fees by North East law firm Ward Hadaway. The Newcastle-based practice is to start using a hi-tech system designed to speed up the issuing of court proceedings on debtors.

The computer-based system will access the Claim Production Centre (CPC) and the County Court Bulk Service (CCBC) at Northampton County Court. These units have been set up to deal with straightforward volume debt collections and help free up more time at local courts.

Instead of filing a claim by post or in person at the local Court, claims are sent and processed electronically, meaning that claims are issued to debtors on the same day that they are lodged. Currently, claims pursued via conventional means can take up to two weeks to be issued. As well as saving time, claims issued via the online system attract lower court fees with savings of up to 30%.

Pauline Appleyard, head of debt recovery at Ward Hadaway, said: “This will be a real saving in time and cost to anyone engaged in commercial or consumer debt recovery. While the Northampton County Court system will not be suitable for all claims, this will enable us to process a large number of claims quicker and cheaper for our clients. It also means less reliance on the postal system to get proceedings started.

“We have invested considerable time and expertise in our IT systems at Ward Hadaway to enable us to use the service and we think clients will really notice the benefits.”

The 10-strong debt recovery team at Ward Hadaway has clawed back many millions of pounds worth of unpaid bills in the past year for numerous clients including mobile phone companies, schools, builders’ merchants, vehicle hire firms and residential landlords.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .