LRC offers a full range of debt collection services to suit your individual requirements including pre-legal collections, tracing, data gathering and dispute resolution. We can tailor a strategy to best suit your customer base whether it is commercial or consumer or a mixture of both.
Pre-legal collections refers to the initial phase of debt collection and typically comprises of a combination of letters, emails and telephone calls prior to any legal action being taken against a debtor. During this stage, the creditor or a debt collection specialist attempts to recover outstanding debts from individuals or businesses who have fallen behind in relation to paying their outstanding invoices.
The pre-legal collections process typically involves communication with the debtor through various means, such as phone calls, letters and emails, to remind them about the unpaid debt and request payment. The goal is to encourage the debtor to voluntarily resolve the outstanding debt without resorting to legal action.
In most cases, pre-legal collections involve negotiation to reach a payment arrangement or settlement that is acceptable to both parties. If successful, this process can help avoid the time and costs of proceeding down the County Court route to recover the debt.
However, if the debtor remains uncooperative or unable to make payments during the pre-legal collections phase, the creditor may consider escalating the matter to a debt recovery specialist who is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to commence Court action by issuing a County Court Claim Form, followed by a County Court Judgment and subsequently using whichever method of enforcement action is most appropriate to recover the debt.
Consumer Debts: These usually follow our 30-day strategy which comprises of three letters send by post and email and supplemented by a combination of effective SMS text messages and telephone calls. All correspondence can be viewed and downloaded from our online Debt Manager system.
Commercial Debts: We can create a strategy most appropriate to your customer base however, the standard initial action usually undertaken when pursuing business to business debts is a letter before action (LBA) supported by telephone calls and internet checks to confirm contact details. We claim either contractual or late payment legislation interest and late payment compensation from the LBA stage and the amount is added to the debt value and is also included on any subsequent claim form should court proceedings be issued.
During the collections process we can also seek to obtain information about your debtors should you so wish including information as to outstanding County Court judgments, insolvency information, home-ownership checks as well as employment information. This information all assists in the decision-making process as to whether it is feasible to go ahead with Court action.
