We do not undertake:
- "no win, no fee" work. We have yet to experience such cases where we have not found ourselves at risk of being in conflict with our clients.
- "Speculative work" - whilst such work may attract lucrative success fees this type of work simply prevents us from concentrating our efforts with our fee paying clients
We do our utmost to charge a fair price for the work we do. If there are ways and means of keeping costs down, we do what we can to help our clients do so.
As much as anything, we do our best to be completely straight with our clients on the issue of costs. That includes making realistic assessments of the work involved, acceptable commercial results/options for the client and providing estimates of the costs involved.
In addition, we bill all our clients monthly on active cases/projects to avoid the problem of nasty surprises.
A lot of commercial clients, particularly in their early days do not necessarily have the cashflow to pay for various contractual documents they need which will help them develop and grow their business. We would rather our client had the benefit of those documents from the outset. Accordingly for certain document packages and ad hoc advice, many of our clients enjoy a retainer relationship which helps their cashflow and gives them the benefit of documents which they would not otherwise be able to afford.
Minimising costs - Commercial Disputes, Litigation, Employment
1. Involve us at the earliest possible stage.
Many people do not appreciate that a claim of £20,000 can have more complex legal issues than a claim of £1million. Attempting to recover £20,000 could easily cost more than what is at stake and carry the risk that the other party is not good for the money by the time a judgment is obtained.
A substantial number of problems are resolved in the drafting of correspondence/documentation for clients long before something needs to go to litigation. The cost saving of this approach is obvious.
This approach can often result in the salvaging of commercially relationships which prove fruitful long term.
A side benefit is that we obtain a better understanding of the operation of your business and are able guide you in areas where your business processes/practices can be enhanced to strengthen your legal position.
There are occasions where this approach does not result in resolution. This can be because a party has another agenda. However, well structured correspondence/documentation can be of considerable assistance to any litigation.
As much of the detail of the dispute will be covered in correspondence this will not only help minimise the matters to be covered in the witness statement but will also help corroboration and therefore credibility.
2. Do not edit your files and send only what you think is relevant.
It is much harder to keep on top of the facts and a lot more expensive to manage documents coming in dribs and drabs.
3. Organise your papers in date order.
Someone has to do it.
4. Witness Statements
You can write a story!
The witness statements are the backbone of any case. They tell the story and pull together all the relevant documents of the case. If a case proceeds to trial, you will be cross examined on your witness statement.
The aim is to minimise cross examination and to put the Judge in a position so he can appreciate exactly what was going on and the different considerations and pressures.
As the risks of litigation are so high, where determination of the core issues are dependant upon witness evidence, it is increasingly becoming standard for witness statements to be required by counsel at the earliest stages of the case. You have been warned!
It does however, have to be factually specific. So if you refer to a meeting, you need to say when and where it was, time, who was there, how long it lasted, whether or not there are minutes or were people making notes. If you do not know something or are not sure, just say so. Obviously we will have to tidy it up and finalise it for the court, nevertheless, the more you do, the more you may save in costs.
Minimising costs - Commercial Contracts
The purpose of a contract is to record the terms agreed between parties so that they each may derive a commercial benefit from the same.
Questions it is useful to think about:
- What are your commercial objectives?
- How fundamental is the substance of the contract to your business?
- How much flexibility do you need?
- If it all goes wrong with the other contracting party, what damage will it do to your business?
- What problems have you experienced with similar contracts?
