We are in business ourselves so we know what it's like.
Sometimes people don't pay, and you need a lawyer to chase it for you...
County Court or Stautory Demand? What are the prospects of recovery? What assets does your customer have that can be used to pay your debt? Are they trading on their own , are they a partnership, or are they a company? How long will it take to recover the money? What will it cost you to do this work? What are the prospects of getting your legal costs paid by the other side? To what extent can we help you help to recover the money for yourself ?
These are the issues we will want to talk to you about in the first conversation that you have with us. Before you phone us, think about what you know about your customer. It will help us enormously!
Everyone likes to keep their customers and suppliers happy, but occasionally disputes happen and a business person has to seek legal advice. We are in business ourselves, and we know that these disputes can distract any enterprise from their real moneymaking purpose. Therefore, at the very outset we will want to talk to you about the following issues:
When we have spent probably an hour asking you for information, we can begin to discuss with you the tactics and the chances of success, the likely costs, the timescale involved, and we will also want to take into account what you can tell is about the personalities of the key people on the other side. We find that this can have a key influence in these matters.
We will talk through the range of options; negotiation, litigation, mediation, and we will discuss the pros and cons of each approach.
You can see that a lot of ground has to be covered in order to give a client maximum immediate advice on their problem, and for that reason we prefer to come and see you at your place of business, it gets us access to most of the documents we will need, and most of the witnesses we will need to put your side of the case . It enables us to get an immediate firm view on the weight of evidence available. This helps us to advise you more thoroughly, more quickly.
Every year when your accountant is doing your books they will have regard to the amount of tax you pay, and at some stage in the progress of your business they are likely to advise you to change the legal arrangements of your business -- typically this is from a sole trader or partnership into a company to obtain the benefits corporation tax rates . They may also have in mind using a spouse’s exempt slice of annual income to save income tax .
A change in the legal constitution your business , however, can also affect who has control of the business, how liabilities might be paid in the event of a business failure, and the responsibilities that the directors of the business have under the law .Make sure you speak to us first so that you have the appropriate vehicle to suit your needs.
Most businesses trade from some kind of premises, frequently leased , and you need an expert lawyer to advise you on the terms of your lease, and what can be done for you before entering into that lease, or when that leases nearing the end of its term. Please ask us for further information on this complex area.
Many people think that contracts are complicated. In fact the majority of contracts are very simple, you go into a shop, you pay some money and you receive something in return. Just because it's not a written down contract doesn't mean it's not a contract. However, when a lot of money is changing hands it is important to have your contacts written down carefully for the following two reasons:
So that both you and your customer know what the agreement is and think about it carefully;
So that if the customer doesn't pay you, you can easily persuade a District Judge to give you a judgment so that you can then enforce your judgment against that customer to make sure you are paid.
So that, as far as is consistent with the law, you can exclude liability.
This is the value for money that you would get from a solicitor drafting your contract, and of course we will be happy to look at more complicated matters, perhaps if the performance due under the contract goes wrong in some way.
For the average business half of their monthly costs are the costs of employing people. It's expensive to get it wrong; if you employ the wrong person then they inevitably cost you money in unhappy customers, if you don't follow proper employment law procedures it will cost you to get rid of them, and if you don't comply with the latest employment law, then your worker may be a very decent employee but still have a claim against you. In some cases when you phone us for employment advice we may refer you to a human resources specialist, they may be more use to you than a solicitor depending upon your problem at that time, but if you do need a specialist lawyer to represent you then talk with us.
We are happy to talk to you about any aspect of your business...