When the deadline has passed and the debt is not genuinely disputed — what a claim costs, what it achieves, and when not to bother.
If the letter before action has been ignored and the debt is not genuinely disputed, the next step is a claim in the County Court. This page is what that involves, what it costs, and how to decide whether it is worth doing — because for some debts it is not.
Issuing and conducting court proceedings is a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007. Buzz Legal Ltd is not a firm of solicitors and does not do reserved work. Claims are issued and conducted by RHF Solicitors (SRA no. 324115), with us still on the file — you do not hand the matter to a stranger and explain it again from the beginning.
Three questions, in this order. Skipping the third is the expensive mistake.
Is the debt genuinely undisputed? If the customer has raised a real argument about the work, the amount or the contract, a claim is no longer a debt recovery exercise — it is litigation, with disclosure, evidence and a risk of paying their costs. A tactical complaint raised for the first time when money is demanded is a different thing, and courts see plenty of them.
Does the arithmetic work? The court fee and the fixed costs are added to the claim and recovered from the debtor if you win, so the gross cost overstates the real cost. But you fund them up front and you only get them back if the debtor pays.
Can the debtor actually pay? This is the one people skip. A judgment against a company with no assets, no trading and nothing to enforce against is a piece of paper you paid for. Before issuing, it is worth looking at the filed accounts, whether there are charges registered against the company, whether it is still filing, and whether there is anyone else on the hook through a guarantee.
We put the numbers in front of you: the court fee for your claim value, what is recoverable, what the realistic timeline looks like, and what we can see about the debtor's ability to pay. If that adds up to a recommendation not to issue, that is what you get — it costs us the fee, which is rather the point of not charging commission.
The court issue fee is set by the scale below and is added to the claim:
| Amount claimed | Court fee |
|---|---|
| Up to £300 | £35 |
| £300.01 to £500 | £50 |
| £500.01 to £1,000 | £70 |
| £1,000.01 to £1,500 | £80 |
| £1,500.01 to £3,000 | £115 |
| £3,000.01 to £5,000 | £205 |
| £5,000.01 to £10,000 | £455 |
| £10,000.01 to £200,000 | 5% of the claim |
| Over £200,000 | £10,000 |
Claims up to £99,999.99 can be issued through Money Claim Online. Fixed solicitors' costs on commencement are added on top and are also recoverable — they are set by the court rules rather than by the hours anyone spends, which on a straightforward debt claim works in the creditor's favour.
A hearing fee only becomes payable if the claim is defended and allocated to a track:
| Track | Fee |
|---|---|
| Small claims, up to £300 | £27 |
| Small claims, £300.01 to £500 | £59 |
| Small claims, £500.01 to £1,000 | £85 |
| Small claims, £1,000.01 to £1,500 | £123 |
| Small claims, £1,500.01 to £3,000 | £181 |
| Small claims, over £3,000 | £346 |
| Fast track | £619 |
| Intermediate and multi-track | £1,334 |
These are the fees in force from 13 July 2026. Fee remission is available in some circumstances through the Help with Fees scheme.
The great majority of commercial debt claims are never defended. The claim form is served, the debtor has a short period to acknowledge and then to file a defence, and in most cases neither arrives. Judgment in default can then be requested without a hearing, and the matter moves straight to enforcement.
This is why a claim is a genuine escalation rather than an empty threat. It is also why the letter before action works — a debtor who understands that the next document is a claim form, and that ignoring it produces a judgment rather than a delay, tends to find the money.
A County Court judgment does three useful things. It converts a disputed commercial position into an established debt. It appears on the register, which matters commercially to any company that wants credit. And it opens the enforcement routes, which is where the money usually actually comes from.
Choosing between those routes is a separate decision and a consequential one — see enforcing a judgment.
RHF Solicitors (SRA no. 324115). Issuing and conducting litigation is reserved by law to regulated firms, and Buzz Legal Ltd is not one. We do the work up to that line — checking the debt, the letter before action, negotiation — and stay involved after it, but the claim itself is theirs.
Partly, and it is better than most people expect on a debt claim. The court fee is added to the claim. Fixed commencement costs are added too. Statutory interest continues to run. What you will not recover in full is the commercial cost of your own time, and on a defended claim in the small claims track costs recovery is very limited — which is another reason to be honest at the outset about whether a debt is genuinely disputed.
We do not promise timescales. The shape, for an undefended claim, is that the debtor has a short statutory window to respond after service, and default judgment can be requested once it passes. Court processing times vary. A defended claim runs to a different order of magnitude entirely.
Good — that is a common outcome and the claim has done its job. The claim can be settled or discontinued, and the court fee and costs incurred normally form part of what is settled. It is worth agreeing that explicitly rather than accepting the invoice amount and quietly absorbing the fee.
The letter-before-action checklist, the interest and compensation rules, and the escalation ladder with what each step costs. One email, no sequence.
Tell us what you are owed and who owes it. You get back what the debt is actually worth once interest and compensation are added, what we would do first, and the fixed fee for doing it.