Question 1

What instructions do you actually take?

Accepted Answer

Five. ASSESSMENT BEFORE ISSUING: is the debt in time, is it genuinely disputed, what does the debtor appear to have, and does the likely recovery justify the likely cost - the half hour that most often saves a client money, because it sometimes ends in advice not to proceed. LETTER OF DEMAND: correctly framed, within the statutory limits on how payment may be demanded. PROCEEDINGS AND JUDGMENT: summary summons for a liquidated sum, judgment in default or on a summary application, in the court matching the amount. ENFORCEMENT: judgment mortgage, instalment order and examination, execution through the Sheriff or County Registrar, garnishee, attachment of earnings. DEBTOR SIDE, in separate matters: assessing whether a debt is barred, whether the sum is right, whether there is a genuine dispute or set-off, and negotiating arrangements.

Question 2

Will you tell us not to pursue a debt?

Accepted Answer

Regularly, and that is much of the point of taking legal rather than agency advice. The situations where the answer is usually no: the debtor has no assets, no income and no guarantor, so a judgment would be a piece of paper bought at your expense; the debt appears statute-barred; the sum is small enough that the cost of recovery exceeds it, which is a real and common outcome; the debt is genuinely disputed, meaning this is litigation rather than debt recovery and should be priced and considered as such; or a company debtor is already insolvent and the realistic route is a claim in a liquidation rather than proceedings. A solicitor whose fee does not depend on a percentage of recovery has no reason to avoid telling you any of that.

Question 3

Can you handle a book of debts rather than one?

Accepted Answer

The firm is not built for volume collection campaigns and does not conduct them - that is genuinely what agencies are for, and for a large ledger of small, undisputed, consumer-facing balances an agency will be cheaper and faster. Where a legal practice earns its place is on the difficult end of a ledger: the substantial balances, the disputed ones, the company debtors, the ones where enforcement is the actual problem, and the ones where somebody needs to advise on which of them to stop chasing. Many businesses run both: an agency or internal process for the routine, and a solicitor for the ones that matter or that have stalled.

Question 4

How quickly can proceedings issue?

Accepted Answer

A letter of demand can issue within days of instructions and the documents being available. Proceedings follow the demand period. After that the pace is largely outside anyone’s control: undefended matters move reasonably efficiently, defended claims take considerably longer, and enforcement adds its own timeline. Two things genuinely accelerate matters and should be flagged at the first call: an approaching limitation deadline, because issuing is what stops the clock and there is no discretion to extend it; and evidence that a debtor is dissipating assets or that a company is failing, which changes the strategy entirely and may point toward urgent relief rather than an ordinary debt claim.

Question 5

How are fees agreed?

Accepted Answer

In writing at the outset, based on the work involved, and never as a percentage or proportion of what is recovered - in contentious business a solicitor may not calculate fees that way. No figures appear on this website because the work determines them: a demand letter, an undefended judgment, a defended claim and an enforcement application are different exercises with different costs. Where costs may be recoverable from the debtor that is explained realistically rather than optimistically, because recovering costs depends on the same thing recovering the debt depends on - whether the debtor has anything.

Services

Five Instructions

1. Assessment First

2. Letter of Demand

3. Proceedings & Judgment

4. Enforcement

5. Debtor Side

Where the Questions Arise

Debt Recovery in Ireland

The Letter of Demand

Time Limits & the Statute

Which Court

Summary Judgment & Defences

Enforcing a Judgment

Commercial Debt & Late Payment

Company Debtors

Consumer Debt

Disputed Debts & Set-Off

Debtor Side

Costs, Interest & Economics

Two Free Tools

Which Instruction Fits?

Services - FAQs