Process serving and tracing agency

Law firms, in-house legal teams, debt recovery companies and property management firms that want one reliable supplier.

You charge clients a fee per job and pay agents a share. Tracing, urgent work and repeat attempts add to the fee.

• Organising jobs and people
• Clear client communication
• Research and tracing skills
• Quality checking of statements

• Check whether agents are self-employed in practice, as HMRC looks at how you work with them
• Professional indemnity and public liability insurance covering your agency work
• Data protection duties, including ICO registration and secure handling of client and tracing data
• Tracing must use lawful sources, so check what is allowed before offering it
• Late or poor quality service from one agent can lose a client, so check work before sending it on

Estimates suggest startup costs are typically around £1,000 to £5,000, depending on your insurance, systems and how many agents you work with. Check that your professional indemnity and public liability cover includes your agency work.

Check whether your agents are self-employed in practice, as HMRC looks at how you work with them. Also check your ICO registration and secure data handling duties, and what lawful sources you may use for tracing before offering it.

Estimates suggest monthly revenue is typically around £1,500 to £7,500, depending on your client base and the number of jobs passed to agents. Checking agents' work before sending it on helps protect client relationships.