Lovetts Solicitors has recently launched Guildways, a UK and International  pre-legal debt collection service. As a no-collection, no fee service for use before legal proceedings are initiated, it complements Lovetts’ fixed fee legal services, and gives flexibility to credit managers both in collection methods and pricing.

It comes at a time where companies are suffering huge pressure on staff, on supplies, on sales fulfilment, and on cash and margins.  There is also the looming spectre of Covid-19 Government support ceasing shortly, just when the business world is trying to get back onto its feet.

Chairman Charles Wilson FCICM says “Growth and economic recovery may, in contrast to the past year, be rapid from 2021 onwards, so the old adage ‘Cash is King’ will never be more true. Growth is bound to mean pressure on customers’ cash, just at a time when there is inevitable stress on each company‘s own finances and cashflow during the Pandemic economy”. 

As part of Lovetts Ltd, Guildways shares the same ethos and professionalism that Lovetts Solicitors has shown over the past 25 years.  It is able to use Lovetts’ highly developed online CaseManager web services, its proven and secure online technology with Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, giving every credit professional visibility of case data in real time.

Guildways (like Lovetts) is also regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) under special statutory exemptions of Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. This gives the security of having back-up from a highly experienced and reputable law firm, dedicated to debt collection alone.

If you would like to know more about Guildways, do visit www.guildways.com or contact [email protected] or phone +44 3333 409000.

Lovetts research shows that on average, 6 in 10 customers pay late at Christmas. This trend is of course likely to be exacerbated with all of the financial uncertainty that the Covid-19 crisis has created. Luckily there are steps that you can take to help mitigate this impact, and for every one of the six in ten customers who pay late over Christmas, we’ve got six ways to help you avoid a lump of coal. 

It’s no secret that business slows down during the Christmas period. Offices are closed, staff are away, and paying invoices can become the furthest thing from people’s minds. This is particularly true this year, when the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis and subsequent period of lockdown continues to have a monumental impact on our social, psychological, and economic well-being. 

But for businesses – particularly SMEs – cashflow remains imperative, and so it can be useful to head-off any festive payment slowdowns before they occur. Here, we look at six steps you can take to help protect your cashflow this Christmas: 

1. Check that your customer has received the invoice
A common reason for late payment is a customer claiming that they have not received your invoice. By remaining diligent and following up on sent invoices in plenty of time, you leave the option open to resend the correspondence BEFORE the Christmas and New Year’s break.

2. Offer incentives to customers who pay in advance
Christmas is the perfect time of year to show appreciation for customers who pay on time! You could include an option on end of year invoices for prompt payers to receive a small discount.

3. Chase up overdue invoices immediately
Obviously it goes without saying that as soon as invoices fall due you should chase them up. You are entitled to this payment. Customers will often have a lot to wrap-up as they approach year end, and a small nudge can be enough to remind them of what their priorities should be.

4. Target customers with a history of late payments
Do not be afraid to be robust, especially with customers who are consistently making late payments. Companies will often have a handful of customers who are responsible for the majority of late payments, so targeting these people early is a good exercise in helping to protect cashflow.

5. Send a Letter Before Action
On average the Lovetts Letter Before Action (LBA) is effective in 86% of all cases, with no further action being required. At just £1.50 for an email version, it’s a fast, efficient way to stay on top of outstanding payments.

6. Issue Court Proceedings
Whether it is approaching Christmas or not, if pre-action correspondence has been ignored then again, you are entitled to this payment, and it is time to consider legal action. The first step here is issuing a court claim, and you can find out more here.

It’s undoubtedly been a difficult year, and of course we all operate with empathy in the current climate in understanding that many businesses are going through a tough time right now. But this understanding must work both ways, and those reading this will be well aware of how important cashflow is to their own company’s survival even in the most productive of years, let alone in the midst of a global pandemic.  

Even in normal times, payment on invoices that would usually be dealt with in a timely fashion is often pushed back significantly at this time of year. In fact, Lovetts research shows that the average number of days payment is received after an invoice falls due, rises to 48 days in December, and 51 days in January.

Therefore, what a lot of the above advice boils down to, is that it’s important to be particularly proactive in your credit control and debt recovery activities prior to the onset of the festive period. We hope you found these six steps useful, and to find out more about how Lovetts can get you started in your debt recovery efforts today click here.

Lovetts Solicitors has been Highly Commended in the 2020 Law Society Excellence Awards, in the category of Excellence in Business Development. A series of virtual ceremonies for the 2020 awards programme took place earlier this month, in which the winning and highly commended entrants were announced.

“It’s obviously a huge honour to have received this recognition,” said Michael Higgins, Managing Director for Lovetts. “As a firm, we’re proud to have been recognised by a number of awards programmes in recent years. This one resonates particularly strongly, because it comes directly from the Law Society itself, – an organisation that sets the highest standards for our sector. Congratulations to the entire team, all of whom have worked tremendously hard, particularly during the Covid disruption of the last six months.”

Over the past two years, Lovetts has seen significant growth across clients, caseloads, and staff count. Earlier this year the Firm’s Founder & Chairman, Charles Wilson, received the Outstanding Contribution to the Industry Award, at the Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) British Credit Awards 2020.

Despite the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, every single individual across the firm has worked tirelessly to ensure we maintain the highest standard of service for our clients. As we look ahead to 2021, Lovetts expects to grow its business debt recovery offering even further.    

Lovetts Solicitors has launched a direct debt payments platform, securely accessible via the firm’s website. The new portal enables account-to-account payments from debtors to creditors online, removing the need for intermediary transfers. It encourages faster payments to creditors, while providing debtors with greater transparency, more information, and less of the stress traditionally associated with the debt collection process.

Powered by payment processing solution Banked, the new Lovetts platform allows debtors to sign-in securely using their case number and solicitor letter reference. From there, users simply authorise their bank to make payment directly to the creditor company, via either their online or mobile banking app. 

As a technology-driven law firm, Lovetts already employs an online sign-up process, as well as its own bespoke case management software, CaseManager, which allows clients to track and manage cases directly online. The new direct debt payments platform also facilitates the real-time transfer of funds without a holding period, which can be particularly advantageous for creditor companies attempting to manage cashflow. 

“We wanted to take the existing online services we offer, and expand them to create a complete online debt collections process from start to finish,” said Andrew Dancy, IT Director for Lovetts. “Banked is one of the best new ideas to come out of Open Banking that we’ve seen so far, and of course especially as a law firm, the strong security measures that it allows us to build in are hugely important when considering any kind of online payment mechanism. By interfacing our existing technology with this API, we’ve been able to facilitate more seamless payments, and in addition to reducing costs that can be a weight off the mind of debtors and creditors alike.”  

The Banked solution provides a 90% reduction in processing fees, and additionally as a Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) channel, a 96% reduction in fraud. It’s part of the Online Banking initiative, a government-led directive set-up by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2018 and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and European equivalents, to grant users greater control over their financial interactions online.  

Brad Goodall, Co-founder & CEO of Banked, said: “Handling highly sensitive financial information for their clients, Lovetts new direct debt payments platform requires a partner that can guarantee them the highest levels of security and data privacy. We’re looking forward to working with Lovetts as their trusted payments partner of choice as well as the opportunity to bring account to account payments into a new vertical for Banked.”

Managing Director of MBL Collections, Mark Bebbington, has been working with Lovetts Solicitors for more than 10yrs. Here, he talks about his experiences working with the firm, and how our bespoke CaseManager debt recovery software can provide significant assistance in the day-to-day credit management process. 

Lovetts Solicitors has been named as the 2020/21 homeshirt sponsor for Woking FC. The announcement comes after two seasons spent as a ground and advertising sponsor with the National League side, and increases the firm’s visibility across the club and the local community. 

Lovetts has become an official partner to ARMA – the Association of Residential Managing Agents, an organisation that promotes high standards of leasehold management across England and Wales by providing advice, training and guidance to its members. 

Lovetts Solicitors has joined the growing list of almost 6,000 UK businesses that have been accredited with Living Wage Employer status. The cross-party project seeks to encourage businesses to go beyond the government’s basic national living wage and pay a ‘real living wage’ based on what employees and their families need to live.

You get to the end of your credit control procedure and you still have some unpaid accounts, so, what are the options?

Is your customer giving reasons for not paying?

Sometimes things go wrong or your customer has a complaint, rightly or wrongly. So, the first question is whether or not they have a genuine complaint.

There is a good reason

If your customer has a good point and you can’t sort this out through negotiation you should consider Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), mediation being the most common form of ADR.

There isn’t a good reason or the debtor doesn’t respond

If your customer is unresponsive or the points raised are not good reasons for failing to pay, your options are as follows:

•  Letter before action

You will need to start with a letter before action. This is a letter telling your customer that the next step will be court proceedings, if the matter is not resolved. Court rules give details of the information that should be given in the letter. From October, there will be special requirements for a letter before claim to an individual, including a sole trader. 

•  Court action and default judgment

If you start an action and your customer doesn’t file a defence you will be able to get judgment in default of defence.

•  Court action plus summary judgment

Your customer may file a defence but the reasons they give for not paying may not be good ones. In this case, you can make an application for the court to decide the case on paper (an application for summary judgment). An application for summary judgment is quicker and cheaper than going to full trial.

•  A defence is filed

Sometimes an unresponsive debtor will file a defence that raises issues which can’t be dealt with by summary judgment and would need to go to trial. In this case you should again consider ADR, if you can’t resolve this through negotiation.

•  Insolvency

Provided the debt is undisputed, then, as an alternative to a debt claim you could consider the threat of insolvency. If the debtor is a company, the debt just needs to be at least £750 and you don’t have to serve a statutory demand. So, the threat of insolvency proceedings can be very effective. Click here for more information.

For an individual, the debt needs to be at least £5,000, so insolvency is only an option for higher debts.

Is chasing late payments getting in the way of your other business priorities?

Our handy free guide will provide you with 10 tips and insights to help you reduce those issues. DOWNLOAD FREE 

Lovetts Chairman, Charles Wilson, has received the Outstanding Contribution to the Industry Award, at the Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) British Credit Awards 2020. In addition, the firm was also shortlisted for two company-wide awards in the categories of B2B/Consumer Supplier of the Year and Legal Provider of the Year.

The trophy was presented at a special ceremony held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, hosted by Colin Murray. The judges described Charles as “A man who has done much to promote ethical standards, the best use of technology, and striven to improve the reputation of the debt recovery profession.”

Lovetts Managing Director, Michael Higgins, added: “Those within the credit industry who know Charles instantly warm to him. He has a strong moral compass and his integrity cannot be surpassed. I owe my career to Charles and I cannot thank him enough for his time, guidance and support.”

Since forming Lovetts Solicitors 25 years ago, Wilson has worked tirelessly for the benefit of both the firm and the credit industry at large. In the early 2000’s he masterminded and launched an online client portal called CaseManager, which provides clients with transparency and control over the debt collection process.

He has worked diligently over the years to promote best practices in terms of prompt payment, and utilising late payment legislation and contractual terms, to protect the cashflow of UK businesses.

Commenting on the award, Charles said: “I am very humbled to be recognised by the industry in this way. Of course in reality, this is down to the immense contribution that so many others have made over the last 25 years, and continue to make on behalf of Lovetts day in, day out. I was particularly pleased to see the Institute recognise the quality, excellence and integrity of the work carried out by the firm. That’s what we’ve stood for, and will continue to do so, above all else.”

The ceremony also marked the end of the tenure of Philip King as CICM Chief Executive, who has been appointed by the Government to act as interim Small Business Commissioner in Birmingham. Sue Chapple, the CICM’s Director of Strategic Relationships, will assume the role of interim CICM Chief Executive until a permanent successor is recruited.

For a gallery of images from the awards evening click here.