In February 2017 we shared this article and in July 2017 we shared this article, which explained the current rules on recovery of costs by the winner of a court action from the loser. It had been proposed to introduce a “fixed recoverable costs” regime for business and other civil disputes, similar to the one for minor personal injury claims.
Two years on, what if anything has changed?
Continue ReadingOur lives are moving more online and sadly this has resulted in a rise in financial scams. A recent poll of over 2000 individuals by YouGov and Lloyds Bank found 10% of them had been the victim of a financial scam. Property transactions are particularly vulnerable, with high values involved and often time is of the essence. There are numerous cases where solicitors and sellers have been duped into sending the sales proceeds to fraudsters, or buyers have paid the purchase money to someone who was not the real owner.
If you are a business owner, in business with one or more partners, have you taken time to consider what might happen to the business if you, or one of them, were suddenly not around or capable of taking part?
Local high streets, town centres and out of town retail parks are all sporting empty units as retailers continue to find market conditions tough. In the last 12 months we have seen some big names disappear such as House of Fraser, HMV and Better Bathrooms and we have seen other retailers reduce their portfolio by closing stores such as Marks and Spencer and John Lewis.
Commercial landlords will normally have an early warning when businesses are struggling as they will often default on rental payments. Depending on the terms of the lease, landlords may have the right to forfeit the lease for non-payment, bringing the lease to an end and giving the landlord an opportunity to re-let the property. But in these tough times is that the landlord’s best option?
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he rush hour commute into Manchester City Centre ground to a halt one morning last month as a disgruntled subcontractor chose to block one of the key routes with plant hire vehicles. The protest was against of non-payment by Dawnus Construction, the main contractor appointed by Manchester City Council to carry of a £15 million road improvement scheme in Manchester and Salford.
The subcontractor, Total Plant Hire (TPL), had supplied plant and machinery to Dawnus for the scheme. When Dawnus failed to pay under the terms of the contract and TPL couldn’t get through to anyone at Dawnus or the Council it took drastic action. Sadly the action was in vain as Dawnus entered Administration that same week. TPL was said to be owed £300,000 by Dawnus. So what can TPL do to recover its money?
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Escalate, Bermans ground-breaking dispute resolution process for SMEs, was awarded the hotly contested ‘Legal Services Innovation Award’ at the prestigious British Legal Awards on Thursday 29th November 2018 – completing an unprecedented clean sweep of the major national legal awards during 2018.
Escalate, the ground-breaking dispute resolution process for SMEs, has won its third national award, completing a unique grand slam of major honours.
Escalate was awarded ‘Excellence in Business Development’ at the Law Society Excellence Awards on Wednesday 17th October.
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All shareholders in UK companies have certain rights in relation to their shares and in relation to the company. Whilst the precise rights that a shareholder enjoys will vary depending on the size of their shareholding (the larger the shareholding, the greater the number of rights enjoyed by the shareholder), certain basic rights and protections apply regardless of the number of shares held.
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Trainee SolicitorJosh graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2015 with a degree in law and then went onto completing the Legal Practice Course at the University of Law in Manchester.
Post studies, Josh has worked at a number of other law firms mainly dealing with clinical negligence and personal injury and worked on some very complex high value cases, including some complicated group action cases.
Whilst at University, Josh was the vice president of a charity group, and also in his final year of University Josh provided pro bono work to the public through the Liverpool University Legal Clinic.
Josh is currently working in the litigation and insolvency departments at Bermans.
Outside of work, Josh is a keen Liverpool Football Club fan and enjoys playing football.
Email: josh.chinn@bermans.co.uk
Tel: 0161 827 4610
Escalate, the ground-breaking commercial dispute resolution process, has been named ‘Best Collaboration Initiative’ in The Lawyer Awards 2018.
This is the second national award that Escalate has won in the past 12 months, having previously triumphed in the ‘Innovation of the Year’ category at the British Accountancy Awards last autumn. The process was also highly commended at the recent Legal Week Innovation Awards.
Escalate helps SMEs to achieve a prompt settlement to a wide range of commercial disputes, with fixed fees payable only on a successful outcome and no upfront costs.
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