Legal Debt collection - The CCJ process
Letter Before Action (LBA)
Before issuing any legal proceedings a letter before action (LBA) should be sent to the customer. An LBA details the background of the debt: the invoices which are outstanding, when they were due and any interest and costs you're entitled to add and usually gives the customer 7 days in which to pay. When using our pre-legal collections service, we send an LBA for free as part of our process.
Claim Issue
Once the 7 days have expired and assuming you have not received a satisfactory response, the next step in the process is to issue legal proceedings through the county court. The customer will be sent a court form (summons) which will require them to pay the debt, plus the interest and any awarded costs within 14 days.
County Court Judgement (CCJ)
If the customer does not respond to the claim, you may apply for a County Court Judgment (CCJ). A CCJ is a Court Order that confirms that the debtor has defaulted on payment. The CCJ gives you the power to take enforcement action in order to recover the debt.
Enforcment
Once a County Court Judgment has been obtained, it is then possible to ‘enforce’ that debt immediately. For this, there are a variety of options. Our team will advise on the most appropriate method of enforcement based on their experience and expertise with similar cases