Setting Aside a Statutory Demand Solicitors

If a Statutory Demand is not responded to, it will usually result in the Court deeming the individual or company involved to be insolvent. This is likely to be a significant milestone on the road towards bankruptcy or winding up. It is unwise, therefore, simply to ignore a Statutory Demand served upon you.

This service is about responding to Statutory Demands that may be served upon you, by someone saying you owe them money. If you want us to serve such a form for you, on someone else, then see our Statutory Demand service.

The most common ground for a Statutory Demand to be resisted in our experience is because the debt claimed is credibly disputed in some way.
There is only a limited time to act – normally 18 days from the service of the Statutory Demand. The longer you take to get going with your response, the fewer your choices of response may be.

We would normally expect the application to Court to be completed within a few days of receiving your instructions.  The Court normally only takes a few days to list the application for hearing.  The actual hearing date could be several weeks or months after the application is listed.

Once a Statutory Demand has been served, there is only a limited amount of time to act. This is usually 18 days.

Once engaged, we will ascertain from you the full circumstances and then prepare an appropriate application and draft evidence. If there is time, we will send the draft application and evidence to your opponent in an attempt to negotiate settlement of the matter. If negotiations fail or there is no time to negotiate, we will make the appropriate application to the Court. We will continue negotiations foe settlement as appropriate until any hearing takes place. We will represent you at any first hearing or arrange representation where necessary.

The matter may settle without any Court application actually being made. If you are a company and an application is necessary, then (in addition to our fee cited) you will need to pay Court application fee, currently £95 (VAT-free) (the Court may revise this figure).  There is no Court fee for any application relating to individuals. A guide to civil court fees can be found here.

If the matter does not settle, and/or a Court hearing occurs, then, the normal rule the Court applies is that the “loser pays the winner’s legal costs” – meaning if you succeed at least some of your legal costs may (and normally would) be recoverable from your opponents.

It is worth bearing in mind that:

• If you have paid us, we will pay to you any recovery that is actually obtained and received by us
• Any actual recovery may not cover your outlay on legal costs, even if you succeed
• Your opponent may be ordered to make a payment, but may fail to do so. That will leave you to consider enforcement action, which we will advise on if necessary
• Your opponent may appeal any outcome
• If you fail to succeed it is possible that some of your opponent’s legal costs may (and normally would) be payable by you
• You still have to pay us regardless of whether or not you succeed

If you fail to succeed, or otherwise (depending on how the circumstances actually turn-out), then further work (i.e. beyond what is listed) may ensue. Any such work is not included in the fixed-retainer – although you may ask us to do such work for you on the terms (and costs) which will be outlined in your engagement with us.

There is more about our fees on our website here

If you have any questions, require any further information, or would like to engage us (that will be on the T’s & C’s that are linked, “Our Terms”, in the footer, below) please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.