Connect Costs and Pure Costs Budgets are two of the eight companies within the Pure legal group that were put into administration on Tuesday, leading to more than 200 redundancies.
However, the group’s main costs business, Pure Legal Costs Consultants, is not on the list, although its website is down and its page on LinkedIn appears to have been removed.
Pure was the brainchild of Phil Hodgkinson, who set up Compass Costs before selling it for £14m to Quindell in 2013. He set up Pure two years later.
Kroll Advisory announced yesterday that Rob Armstrong, Michael Lennon and James Saunders were appointed on Tuesday as joint administrators of Pure Business Group, Astute Business Management Consultants, Pure Technology Systems, Pure Reporting Services, Pure Claims, Pure Legal, Pure Claims Support Services, Connect Costs and Pure Costs Budgets. Not all of these businesses were active, it is understood.
In a statement, Kroll said: “The companies are part of the wider Pure Business Group which provides a range of end-to-end legal services within the civil litigation sector and is handling over 20,000 live claims.
“The joint administrators are taking the steps necessary to ensure all client files and monies are secure and claimants are being contacted to explain the next steps.
“The companies which together employed 256 staff and operated from sites in Liverpool and Prescot [in Merseyside] have ceased trading with immediate effect, resulting in 203 redundancies. The administrators are working with the remaining employees to wind down operations and in providing support to redundant employees.
“Other companies within the wider group are unaffected by the appointment of the administrators.”
It is understood that around 135 staff are still working in the wider group, which also include Pure Litigation and Advocacy, an alternative business structure (like Pure Legal).
The Costs Lawyer Standards Board register lists eight Costs Lawyers as working at Pure Legal Costs Consultants.
Pure focused on high-volume consumer litigation: negligent wall insulation, mortgage mis-selling, undisclosed commissions, mortgage miscalculations, housing disrepair and data breaches. It exited the injury market earlier this year by selling Pryers Solicitors, which it had bought six years earlier.