Experience

Having acted on behalf of many Landlords, Letting Agencies, fellow Solicitors’ firms, Businesses and Individuals our team have developed specialist skills in confidently and seamlessly representing clients in all Court appearances ranging from straightforward small claim matters, repossession hearings and bankruptcy hearings, to complex Court of Appeal matters.

We have excellent first hand experience in representing clients in Mediation meetings and our Lawyers have often negotiated deals or settlements in complex matters. Our aim is to make our clients as comfortable as possible in what can often be pressurised formal circumstances.

If you need someone to represent you, no matter how straightforward or complex the matter, we can help.

We have acted on behalf of an international property management company which has over 300 offices worldwide and a well known London based property management company. Members of our Landlord and Tenant team have acted on behalf of these companies doing large volume work as well as acting for many regional Letting and Property Agents together with a host of individuals with investment property portfolios.

Key members of our Landlord and Tenant team have property portfolios of their own and therefore they have a natural affinity, passion and understanding for this area of law.

We have experienced a large spectrum of Landlord and Tenant issues and we understand the intricate details of how property management works; our Lawyers having been involved in running property management agencies and working closely along side them.

Examples of tenant scenarios are countless! One interesting recollection is when a tenant abandoned a property leaving a trespasser against whom emergency court proceedings were taken followed by bailiff action and a change of the locks, the day after which the trespasser climbed back into the property via a carefully opened window on the 2nd floor!

The chances are that if you have a Landlord and Tenant issue, we have experienced it in some way!

Cases that our team members have acted on include claims in the small claims court for sums from £300 up to £5,000 and claims in the High Court worth millions of pounds.

Patel –v- Patel [2009] EWCH 3264 (QB) is a reported case that one of our team’s senior Solicitors has conducted, having acted on behalf of the Claimant. The case was a large debt dispute of over £4 million and which related to money lent by an individual between 1979 and 1983 to another individual as a business loan.

Acting on behalf of businesses to collect commercial debts, property management companies, letting agencies and individual landlords is also frequent work for us; and an area of law with which we are well acquainted. We have developed a simple easy to follow process for this which is described in our debt recovery section.

No matter how small or large the debt is, feel free to contact us to discuss the best way to recover your money.

Unless the Winding up of your business or your personal bankruptcy is the right course of action, we will strive to do whatever it takes to ensure that your business or personal assets are protected. Our team recently acted on behalf of a husband and wife operating a business as a partnership where we were able to convince the court to avoid a winding up and then bankruptcy order on 8 adjourned hearings. Our Barrister declared that he had never experienced so many adjournments on a single matter!

We regularly act on behalf of companies and individuals in defending claims from HM Revenues and Customs on VAT issues and other creditors. In order to protect assets we frequently work with Liquidators and Administrators to see where businesses can be restructured.

To see how we can protect your personal or business assets contact us for a no obligation chat.

GDI Markets Ltd –v- EFSCR LLP & Others (2009) is an unreported High Court case involving a company funded by a Saudi Arabian Billionaire in which we acted on behalf of the de facto Directors of the Claimant Company in a shareholder and company control dispute. A senior member of our team worked closely with the defendants and very senior Counsel to successfully negotiate a deal which resulted in proceedings for an injunction to be withdrawn.

Amongst the largest value claims that one of commercial litigation team members has been heavily involved in is the Court of Appeal case of FKI Engineering Ltd & Anor v De Wind Holdings Ltd & Anor [2008] EWCA Civ 316. The matter started as a share sale dispute in the High Court over sums in excess of €57,000,000 and ended up in the Court of Appeal as a dispute over Jurisdiction and whether the matter could be decided by the Courts in Germany or in England.

We are experienced in dealing with complex and high value matters but at the same time we offer the same passion and commitment to all commercial disputes that we are instructed to deal with. For example we recently advised a director of a small laundry business with respect to a property dispute with his co-directors which resulted in an amicable and cost effective settlement without the need for Court proceedings.

Whatever the nature of your commercial dispute, we would be delighted to assist.

Contract Law is one of the cornerstones of Litigation and dispute resolution work and the examples of our experience in this area of law are considerable.

A junior team member recently advised the owner of a Chinese restaurant in a small claims matter where the owner was claiming just under £5,000 from the purchasers of her business for the breach of an agreement; the purchasers had failed to pay money for stock pursuant to an agreement that had been written on the back on an envelope!

In contrast a senior member of our team has recently acted on behalf of a building company that had not been paid retention monies by a well known national house building company. Our client successfully recovered the retention monies without the need for costly court action.

We are always happy to have a free no obligation telephone conversation to ascertain the nature of your contractual dispute and to see how we can help.

It appears that Trusts and Probate Disputes are on the rise with an increasing number of family members or other dependants being forced to make claims against estates or executors handing the estates of deceased loved ones.

We regularly advise family members in this area of law. For example, recently, our team members have advised siblings of a deceased mother in a potential claim against the deceased’s grandson for exerting undue influence over the deceased resulting in the grandson inheriting the whole of the deceased’s property. Our advice resulted in a variation in the split of the estate whereby the siblings received £25,000 each.

During 2011 and 2012 two members of our Contentious Probate team have been heavily involved in a case on behalf of a Claimant widow as part of a legal team including a prominent silk, Kuldip Singh QC and Andrew Francis who is a leading Barrister in Contentious Probate work and who is the author of the leading book on Inheritance claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Families and Dependants) Act 1975. The case: Allport v Allport (2012) EWCA Civ 434, reached the Court of Appeal where the Court refused permission to the Claimant to go further. The widow received an award in excess of £3.7 million.

We understand the sensitive nature of Trusts and Probate disputes and have the experience necessary to guide you through what can often be highly emotional times.

From defective everyday goods sold on eBay to dealing with luxury car dealerships in the rejection of brand new high specification vehicles that are faulty, our commercial litigation team members have dealt with a wide array of consumer disputes.

Our team members have several years of combined experience in dealing with a broad spectrum of consumer cases, which complimented by leading technological and legal research tools, enables us to offer fast solutions to your consumer issues.

We can help if you have a consumer issue. For information on the range of cases that we regularly deal with please see our consumer issues pages or contact us.

Where viable, we encourage our clients to consider the forms of dispute resolution, not least because the Courts are keen to see that parties to a dispute have done all they can to settle the matter cost effectively and without the need to attend Court.

Our team members have developed considerable experience in dealing with mediations and negotiations. Confidence and knowing your clients’ case is the key! We have attended small claims mediation meetings over the telephone and high value negotiations involving multinational insurance companies and business leaders in the heart of the City of London. Our team members have built up good connections with accredited and highly recognised mediators who we are keen to instruct when required given their experience in the field.

Many of our team members fluently speak other languages including European, Chinese and other Asian languages which puts us in the excellent position of being able to assist a wide audience of clients from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds in resolving disputes which may other wise end up in Court.

If we can help you settle your case without the need to go to Court, we will!

Our property litigation team members have acted in a variety of property dispute cases. Recent examples include a local house building company that built a property with the foundations not dug deep enough causing the property to shift and the walls to crack!

We regularly advise commercial landlords on dilapidations claims and we have a highly specialised yet simple residential landlord and tenant service for the recovery of rent arrears and the eviction of tenants – which is described more in our landlord and tenant pages.

More varied examples of our property work include guiding British citizen clients on property disputes throughout India and the implications on those clients and their property assets here in the United Kingdom.

Property disputes are often related to other areas of Litigation such as Trusts and Probate matters and we have the experience to advise clients effectively throughout. Whatever your property dispute may be related to, we will strive to find you the most pragmatic and cost effective solution to resolve the matter.

Dealing with negligence cases requires honed analysis skills! Members of our litigation team have developed these skills which, have been gained partially by hands on practice in this area of law. Our own firm’s rigorous internal procedures remind us of the high standards expected by businesses or individuals offering professional services.

We have acted on behalf of clients with claims against other legal practitioners and professionals from other fields. A recent case involved a Property Solicitor who had failed to register an investment property owner’s correct address on the land registry records. The property owner did not realise that the service charges for the property had not been paid as the demand letters had been going to the wrong address. The property owner was only alerted when a County Court Judgment was listed on his credit file causing the property owner much anxiety and potential, considerable financial loss!

Another case involved a claim against a Firm of established Estate Agents who failed to properly oversee the removal of a property seller’s personal goods from a property that the Agents had sold, and the removal of which goods the Agents had promised to ‘take care of’. A junior member of our team successfully recovered £2,500 on behalf of the property seller.

We will handle your negligence claim professionally and cost effectively.

We recently acted on behalf of a company that was being pursued by the iconic ‘Monster’ (three claws) brand for allegedly manufacturing and passing off goods being produced by our client company as those belonging to ‘Monster’. We successfully and quickly negotiated an out of court settlement.

In another case we acted for a Firm of accountants that had instructed a web developer to construct a website. The developer inadvertently used a picture on the website that was protected by copyright. The Firm was pursued by ‘Getty images’. We successfully defended the action.

One of the most prominent intellectual property related cases that our litigation team members has been involved in is the franchise case of Fleet Mobile Tyres –v- Stone and Ashwell [2006] EWCA Civ 1209 which concerned in part territory issues and online selling.

We have effectively negotiated settlements or pursued infringers of ‘Intellectual Property’ on behalf of businesses and individuals. If you have an ‘Intellectual Property’ related dispute, please feel free to contact us.