Advantis

Xb183

My son has had a letter from Advantis yesterday about legal fees debt , this court case was nearly 13 years ago  he has no contact with anybody since and no letters , out of the blue this letter was put through the letterbox yesterday ,

My question are have they any right to pursue this debt as it's 13/12 years old 

Does he legally have to pay it 

What can they do if he doesn't respond to the letter or what advise can someone give me please on what to do , there is no date on the letter as to when the court case was , also my son applied for a mortgage last October with two different building societies, both did two hard credit checks and neither showed any debts whatsoever. Would this debt be 

 statute-barred ?

Thank you in advance

This is what the letter said

Letter Date 12/02/2025

Dear !!!!

We have been notified by the Legal Aid Agency that you have been convicted in the Crown Court. You should have been advised by your solicitor/litigator what happens at the end of your case, but this letter is to remind you of what happens next in relation to your legal aid.

Even though you have pleaded or been found guilty, you remain subject to an Income Contribution Order or an Income Evidence Sanction Order. This means you are still liable for any income contributions that fell due before your case ended. Our records show your income contribution payments are overdue and the amount of your arrears is £2602.60. This is due immediately.

Total

£2602.60

At the time of applying for legal aid you were advised that if convicted, you may be liable to make a contribution from capital towards the cost of your case if your disposable capital exceeds £30,000. To decide this, we may independently check the information you provided within your application.

In order to calculate your final liability, we need to know how much your representation at the Crown Court cost. This is the combined amount paid to your solicitor and advocate for representing you. Once the Legal Aid Agency has received and authorised both bills, we will use this total to decide if you must contribute from your capital and equity, if your income contribution you have paid does not cover your court costs.

If you still owe us money from your capital and equity, we will send you a Capital Contribution Order telling you how much you need to pay. This process usually takes five months but could take longer if there are delays in the submission of these bills or if the assessment of fees are subject to an appeal.

If you believe your capital and equity position has changed since you applied for legal aid, you must tell the Legal Aid Agency or us as soon as possible. Any changes from the information you declared must be evidenced. Guidance on common changes and suitable evidence to support these can be found at -

Yours sincerely,

Collections Director

Advantis Credit

Tags: None

Brie

In all honesty I don't know how these cases are supposed to be handled.

If it was simply a debt from 13 years back I would say it was statute barred and maybe best to ignore it.  But this sounds a bit more serious, hence my hesitation.

Given that after a couple of hours there's been no response to your post I'll get this moved to the debtfree wannabe board as there's some knowledgeable types that tend to lurk there who might know more than me.  

Xb183

Thank You Brie

ManyWays

No idea, I suggest a phone call to https://nationaldebtline.org/

DullGreyGuy

This comes under the  The Criminal Defence Service (Contribution Orders) Regulations 2009 and not an area of expertise. 

I wonder if a charity like Unlock that supports people with convictions may be more relevant than a debt charity as it's a bit of a niche area. 

Do you know when the order was made? Rules do vary depending on the level of the criminal court that he was found guilty in. 

Xb183

I think the original order was 2012/2013 , he hasn't heard anything since around that time .

sourcrates

Its essentially a legal aid bill, the amount he should have contributed from his income or savings etc towards the cost of the case.

Now Advantis are a debt collection company, they collect debts on behalf of their client companies, so they do not own this debt, nor do they have power of enforcement to collect it, unfortunately debts of this nature are not subject to the limitation act.

However, I suspect it will be the Solicitor that represented him that has engaged Advantis in the hope of recovering some of this money, as it would be far too late now for them to be paid for this work, I`m guessing his case fell through the cracks and has only recently been re-discovered.

This is not something that I would be rolling over with easily and I would respond by sending the prove-it letter, do they mention who the client is at all by name?

If it was the old Solicitor, I would be tempted to contact them and complain because I think to send him a bill after 12 years is absolutely appalling.

He can tell the solicitor that he intends to complain to their regulatory authority.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority do have the power to tell the solicitor to write this off.
Whatever happens, don’t be hanging about.

Xb183

Many thanks for your reply ,I will get him to get on the case immediately, there is no mention of any solicitors on the letter ,there's no dates either the  only date is when letter was made .

sourcrates

They will be acting for someone, it could be the solicitor or it could the Ministry of justice, whoever has ownership of the debt now I guess.

The prove-it letter should get you these details, if its the MOJ, he would have to complain to them.

DullGreyGuy

sourcrates said:

However, I suspect it will be the Solicitor that represented him that has engaged Advantis in the hope of recovering some of this money, as it would be far too late now for them to be paid for this work, I`m guessing his case fell through the cracks and has only recently been re-discovered.

The legislation talks extensively about Legal Services Commission who make the termination, the convict having to respond to them etc. It also states if its paid and then corrected it the Legal Services Commission that has to repay the person. 

I'd be surprised if the lawyer was involved, Id thought he'd get paid under the Legal Aid and then the commission deals with any recovery where Legal Aid was overpaid or partially not due etc. I would think a lot of these are never repaid and that would be a massive credit risk the lawyer would have to take on if doing Legal Aid work.

Xb183

Thank you everyone, I'll get him to do a prove it letter today and will keep you updated on the progress .