We provide debt recovery services for a wide variety of clients, including SMEs, contractors, professional services firms and landlords. We offer one-off assistance with recovering a single debt, or an ongoing service to support your credit control operations.

Our tailored service is designed to be as economic as possible, allowing you to manage and control costs every step of the way.

The stages of debt recovery

There are several stages to recovering a debt, and our lawyers aim to resolve the situation at the earliest stage possible:

Pre-action

Our experienced team can make some enquiries prior to any action being taken to determine the likelihood of success. This may include employment trace, property ownership and insolvency checks. Having as much information as possible on a debtor could determine the best course of action to take to recover the sums due to you.

We can advise you on a range of steps that may be appropriate including to issue effective demand letters, court proceedings, statutory demands and short form demands.

Raising a court action

Sometimes there is no alternative to raising legal proceedings. For debts up to £5,000 see Simple Procedure in the Scottish Courts and for debts over £5,000 see Ordinary actions in the Scottish Courts. Our team is hugely experienced in debt recovery actions and can handle all aspects of the process for you, advising you of your options at each stage and keeping you up-dated throughout.

Enforcement

If a debt remains outstanding following a court judgment, there are a range of enforcement options available to you to seek to secure payment. We will use our extensive experience to steer you towards the most pragmatic solution in every instance.

Some businesses can be reluctant to pursue debts in Scotland due to concerns about locating a debtor, the complexity in court proceedings or the costs involved. Click here to see us address the concerns most commonly raised with us.

Guidance on cross-border debt recovery

Debt recovery procedures in Scotland are very different to those in other parts of the UK and beyond, with distinctive remedies, courts, procedures and approaches. It’s certainly not an area to leap into without advice if your debt recovery experience is primarily in another jurisdiction.

Therefore, we often work with companies or law firms in other parts of the UK and elsewhere that need assistance with recovering debts in Scotland. If that applies to you, please feel free to contact us to discuss what we could do to assist you.