Recently, I represented my company as a witness in court for a £7,000 unpaid invoice claim. Our director had filed the case with a solicitor's help, and my colleague and I worked to build the evidence, prepare witness statements, and organise the court bundle. It was a straightforward debt claim - a client simply hadn't paid for work we'd completed.
We went to court. I stood as a witness. We presented our evidence. And we won. Justice was served - or so I thought.
"We won our £7,000 claim, but we couldn't recover the £2,500 we'd spent on solicitor fees from the defendant. Yes, the fees were tax deductible for our business, but that didn't change the fundamental problem: our client would have settled outside of court for around £4,000-£4,500."
We'd spent months stressed about court proceedings, paid thousands in fees we couldn't recover from the other side, and gone through the anxiety of the courtroom - all to end up in essentially the same net position we could have achieved through direct settlement. Using a solicitor for our small claim had turned what should have been a straightforward recovery into months of stress and unnecessary expense.
That experience opened my eyes. The small claims court is meant to be accessible without needing a solicitor, but most people don't feel confident going it alone. They know they can't recover legal fees, but feel they have no choice - so they pay up anyway and watch a chunk of their claim disappear. That's why I built CourtPilot - to give you the guidance and tools to handle your claim yourself, without the hefty legal bills. Whether it's an unpaid invoice, a dodgy service, or a deposit that's gone missing, you shouldn't have to choose between fighting for what's right and it actually being worth your while.
