Lovetts Solicitors, the debt recovery law firm, has been shortlisted in the 2013 Law Society Lexcel Awards in the category of Excellence in Practice Management. Lovetts first secured Lexcel accreditation in August 2012, being shortlisted for this important award clearly demonstrates the firm’s commitment to putting its clients’ interests and requirements first in order to provide the best possible service.
The prestigious Law Society Excellence Awards attract entries from hundreds of Lexcel accredited law firms across the UK, with the Excellence in Practice Management Award bestowed on the firm that above all others has shown new and innovative ways of implementing Lexcel. In particular the judges look for the practice which has most effectively incorporated the Lexcel framework into its business and driven new strategies to enhance performance and generate continuous improvement.
Charles Wilson, Chairman of Lovetts, says “We have always received excellent feedback from our clients, but wanted to raise the bar even further through the rigour of Lexcel when Outcomes Focused Regulation was introduced in late 2011. We have found that our first Lexcel accreditation in August 2012 has opened up fresh thinking in this area and allowed us to introduce initiatives to further enhance our systems and service.
For example, we have improved our in-house cost-estimating software, to give better visibility of all estimates through our bespoke CaseManager client extranet. We have also enhanced our operational manuals to be more user-friendly and got closer to our customers through a number of initiatives including director-led client visits with paralegals. We’d be delighted to win but to be shortlisted is a fantastic endorsement in itself. It’s good to have the external acknowledgement that the initiatives and changes we have all worked hard to implement in the past year have been recognised by Lexcel as worthwhile and beneficial to our clients.”
Winners will be announced at a prestigious black-tie awards dinner on Tuesday 22nd October 2013 at Park Plaza Hotel, Westminster Bridge.
STOP THE CLOCK.
LOVETTS SOLICITORS OFFERS UNLIMITED ACCESS TO LEGAL ADVICE
With new, annual contract arrangement
www.lovetts.co.uk
In a significant move that once again challenges the usual conventions of legal practices, Lovetts Solicitors, the leading debt recovery law firm is offering customer access to legal advice, ‘on tap’ without the worry of a ticking clock through a new Annual Subscription service. To mark the launch, new and existing Clients who sign up for the service on or before 31st October 2013 will benefit from the Lovetts Annual Subscription contract for free until 1st December 2013. The usual cost will be £1,500 for SMEs and £3,000 for larger companies – over £20 million turnover.
Lovetts Annual Subscription service provides access to unlimited advice via telephone or email from experienced solicitors who specialise in commercial debt collection, litigation and dispute resolution. This allows clients to estimate their chance of success, set out their legal position and agree a strategy for collecting the debt. They can also use the advice to determine the likely costs involved if they decide to proceed with legal action.
Charles Wilson, Chairman of Lovetts, explains “At Lovetts, we have always challenged convention and looked at ways to make our business as open and accessible as possible to our clients. In some cases hourly charging is right and appropriate, but we also know through feedback from our clients that it can be a real bugbear and many would prefer an annual fixed cost, so we have introduced this subscription to provide a choice.
By subscribing to the annual advice subscription service our clients can simply pick up the phone to a solicitor and talk through any issues they may have with a debt, without being charged for the time. If it does not make commercial sense to pursue a debt through legal action, we will advise the client accordingly so they can take alternative action. This provides an invaluable opportunity to reduce costs by ensuring they take the most effective action for each and every case.
We believe this service will offer real value while allowing Lovetts to build stronger bonds with our clients by delivering quality services that become an extension of their business.”
H1 2013 vs H1 2012 data analysis shows late payers are given an extra month to pay
rather than tightening their credit control processes to support financial recovery, businesses appear to have relaxed their attitude to late payment. Compared to the first half of 2012, in the first half of 2013 businesses allowed their customers an extra 28 working days on top of their standard payment terms in which to pay, before they instructed a Letter Before Action (LBA) threatening legal action to recover the outstanding payment.
As a result, firms are now waiting an average of almost 4 months before they take the first steps to recover money owed for products and services. However, once the LBA had been issued the gloves effectively come off and companies are following up with legal action an average of just over 20 working days after issuing the LBA.
It is encouraging to see that businesses are not making empty threats and do follow up and pursue their customers through the courts to get back money owed to them. However, it seems that firms have been keeping existing customers happy and do not want to risk damaging relationships, hence the long delay after issuing an invoice before chasing up the payment. Clearly, protecting business relationships is essential, but if the cost of that is affecting a company’s own cashflow it is not sustainable business practice – firms are effectively bank rolling their customers.
A recent survey from the Forum of Private Businesses showed that late payment is causing greater concern for businesses in 2013 than it did in 2012(2), with the percentage of respondents citing this concern rising from 33% to 38%. It is unsurprising that this is a big issue for businesses, particularly smaller firms with less stable cash flow, but the only way to improve late payment recovery is to act early in chasing up invoices and to show that late payment will not be tolerated.
Companies should remind their customers of the payment date before it becomes due, to increase likelihood of payment on time. In order to keep a good credit control procedure in place, businesses must act early and show customers that they are serious about getting paid on time. The best way to do this, is to ensure that the debt recovery process, including recovery of legal fees and late payment compensation, are stated in the contract terms and conditions so there can be no misunderstanding.
10 Point Plan To Tackle Late Payment
- At the outset make sure the customer understands that legitimate costs, compensation and interest will be claimed if late payment occurs – get it in your Terms & Conditions
- Don’t be afraid; make sure they understand very clearly that this will form the basis of your trading relationship. Having done this:
- Invoice, and in the same month call or email to check the invoice has arrived with the right person to approve
- Focus on the usual suspects
- As soon as payment becomes overdue, call the customer to remind them that Late Payment compensation and interest are due on each invoice – give them the cost they could incur if they don’t pay up
- Make no bones about the fact these will be claimed if it goes to legal, then dangle a carrot and offer to waive compensation if immediate payment is made
- If it helps, explain that compensation is to pay the costs of running a credit control team
- If payment isn’t made, warn of the additional recovery and/or legal costs that will be due in addition to Late Payment compensation
- Go legal when you say you will. If you don’t act on your threat your invoices will always remain at the bottom of the pile
- Act decisively and it will change your business culture and your customer relationships while reducing late payment for your business
(2) Survey conducted by FPB,