A north west firm running financial mis-selling claims has closed, announcing on its website that cases have been transferred.
The Gazette understands that Legal UK Services Ltd, based in Altrincham, told clients last week that it had appointed insolvency practitioners and would cease trading within weeks.
That process appears to have been accelerated this week as the firm stated that all live cases had been transferred to neighbouring Cheval Legal.
Legal UK Services has not said anything further, but an SRA spokesperson said: ‘We are in contact with the firm to make sure that the interests of clients and former clients are protected, and that live matters and client money are dealt with in the right way.’
The company was incorporated in 2016 and claimed on its website to have settled claims on behalf of thousands of clients, securing more than £6m in compensation. It specialised in claiming back mis-sold or unaffordable financial services including personal contract claims, PPI claims and secret commission claims.
The firm capped its fees for non-litigious work in line with the new SRA rules on costs of financial claims.
For litigious claims, clients were charged through a damages based agreement, with the payment coming to 48% of compensation secured.
Latest accounts for Legal UK Services Ltd, covering the year to 31 December 2022, show the company had net liabilities of £2.8m – an increase of more than £2m in the space of a year.
The firm had work in progress valued at £1.55m and £438,000 cash reserves, but owed £1.3m within a year and had longer term debts of £4.2m.
The accounts state that the firm was ‘still in the process of establishing itself in the market’ but that it had built up a database of clients which it was confident would generate leads. Headcount rose from 29 to 38 in 2022.
