What issuing actually involves, what it costs, and the questions worth answering honestly before you spend anything.
The deadline has passed, nothing has arrived, and the question is whether to issue. This guide is what that actually involves, what it costs, and the three questions worth answering honestly first.
Is the debt genuinely undisputed? If there is a real argument about the work or the amount, you are not recovering a debt, you are litigating — with disclosure, evidence, and a risk of paying their costs. A complaint raised for the first time on the day a demand arrives is a different thing, and courts see plenty of them, but it still has to be dealt with rather than ignored.
Can the debtor pay? The one most people skip. A judgment against an empty company is a document you paid for. Check the filed accounts, whether charges are registered against it, whether it is still filing, and whether anyone gave a guarantee — see checking whether a customer can actually pay.
Does the arithmetic work? The court fee and fixed costs are added to the claim and recovered if the debtor pays — but you fund them now, and you only get them back if there is money at the other end.
| 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 |
Fees per the EX50 scale in force from 13 July 2026. Claims up to £99,999.99 can be issued through Money Claim Online.
Note that the fee is charged on the amount claimed, which includes the interest and compensation you have added. That cuts both ways: it costs slightly more to issue, and it is all recoverable from the debtor.
Illustrative. Fixed commencement costs are added on top and are also recoverable. You fund the £455 on issue and get it back from the debtor if they pay — which is exactly why their ability to pay is the question that matters most.
Issuing and conducting proceedings is a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007. A company can act through a solicitor, or in limited circumstances represent itself; it cannot instruct an unregulated firm to conduct the litigation for it. That is why our claims go to RHF Solicitors (SRA no. 324115), and why we say so on every page rather than blurring it.
The claim form is served, the debtor has a short window to acknowledge and then to file a defence, and in most commercial debt cases neither arrives. Judgment in default can then be requested on paper — no hearing, no attendance, no witnesses.
That is why the letter before action works. A debtor who understands the next document is a claim form, and that ignoring it produces a judgment rather than a delay, tends to find the money.
The character of the thing changes. The claim is allocated to a track according to its value and complexity, directions are given, and you are into disclosure and witness statements. A hearing fee becomes payable.
| 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 |
The track matters for costs as much as for procedure. On the small claims track costs recovery is very limited even for the winner, so a defended small claim can cost more to win than it returns. That is not a reason never to defend a defence — it is a reason to be honest at the outset about whether the debt is genuinely undisputed, because the answer changes the economics completely.
A County Court judgment does three useful things. It converts a contested commercial position into an established debt. It appears on the register, which matters commercially to any company that wants credit or a lease. And it opens the enforcement routes, which is where the money usually actually comes from.
Choosing between those routes is a separate and consequential decision — see enforcing a judgment.
Almost certainly not on an undefended debt claim. If no defence is filed in time, judgment in default is requested and dealt with on paper — nobody attends anything, and for most commercial debt claims that is how it ends. You would only attend if the debtor filed a defence and the claim was allocated to a track for trial. Even then, many defended claims settle before the hearing date, because a defence filed to buy time looks very different once directions are given and costs start to accrue. If you are worried about the prospect of standing up in court, it is worth knowing how unusual that outcome is on a straightforward unpaid invoice.
We do not promise timescales, and you should be wary of anyone who does, because the answer depends on the debtor's behaviour and on court processing times that nobody controls. The shape is this: after service the debtor has a short statutory window to respond, and default judgment can be requested once it passes. An undefended claim can therefore reach judgment in a matter of weeks. A defended claim runs to a different order of magnitude entirely — months, sometimes considerably more, depending on the track and the court's list. Enforcement adds time again after judgment, which is why acting early on a debt beats acting thoroughly on it later.
Common, and the claim has done its job. Issuing frequently produces payment precisely because it demonstrates that the earlier deadline was not a bluff. The claim can then be settled or discontinued. The thing to get right is what 'paid' means. The court fee and the costs you have incurred normally form part of what is settled, and you should agree that explicitly rather than accepting the invoice amount and quietly absorbing the fee. A debtor who has just been shown you will issue is in the weakest position they will ever be in, and that is the moment to settle the whole claim including interest, compensation and the fee — not just the principal.
Broadly no. Recoverable costs on a debt claim are fixed by the court rules rather than by what the matter actually cost you, and your own management time is not among the recoverable heads. That is a genuine frustration for creditors and it is worth knowing before you start. There are two partial answers. The statutory fixed compensation sum of £40, £70 or £100 exists precisely to acknowledge the administrative cost of chasing, and the Act also allows you to claim reasonable recovery costs above that fixed sum where they exceed it. That is the route through which a recovery firm's fee can often be added to the debt rather than borne by you.
For a small, simple, clearly undisputed debt against a company, it is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and we would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. Claims up to £99,999.99 can be issued that way. Where people come unstuck is the particulars of claim — the part that sets out what the debt is for and why it is owed. A vague or wrong particulars invites a defence that would not otherwise have been filed, and amending later costs time and sometimes a fee. The other trap is naming the wrong entity, which can mean discontinuing and starting again. If either of those worries you, send us the invoice and we will tell you which situation you are in.
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.