Civil Litigation, Debt Recovery & Dispute Solicitors

Another important question to ask yourself, “if you win the case, can the person or business you are suing pay what you are owed?

If you are suing to get money, you need to know that your opponent - the defendant, has the money to pay. This may mean they have suitable insurance to cover them for such eventualities or they have personal assets or wealth meaning they can definitely pay.

There is no central pot of government money standing by should a successful civil court claimant find the defendant is for all intent and purposes broke. 

So, you need to find out if your opponent has money or assets and where those assets are, because that will affect your ability to make them obey a court order to pay you.

Depending on who you are looking to make the claim against, you should consider:

• Is the individual bankrupt?
• Has the firm or company ceased to trade?
• Can you even trace them, or have they disappeared?
• Is there a property over which you can obtain a charge? (Basically a security so that when the property is sold you are paid from any sale proceeds).

PSR Solicitors can also provide investigatory services to help trace individuals and to identify financial standing and personal assets.

Also, if you do win your case and the defendant does not pay up, you will likely need to go back to court to make an application for the money, this is known as ‘enforcing the judgement’ and can involve instructing bailiffs or the High Court Sheriff.

There is a 6-year time limit on starting court proceedings against someone that you wish to make a claim against.

The more proof you have the more chance you have of succeeding.  If you have a contract, documents, letters, emails or texts – all these assists in building your proof and your case.  Photographs, bank statements and other documents may be appropriate depending on the specific circumstances of your case.

If you do not have any of these and are basically relying on verbal evidence, your chances of success are very low, and you could be setting yourself up for high costs and little to show for it at the end of the court process.

Generally, the court is interested in ensuring that justice is done.  As such the courts have a generally open stance to documentation, other than those obtained illegally for example or if documentation has been obtained for one reason and used for an entirely different reason.

Like the old saying ‘any verbal agreement is not worth the paper it is written on’.  Basically, it is virtually impossible to enforce a verbal agreement unless there are witnesses to the verbal agreement who are willing to provide written statements attesting to the conversation, or if there is other behaviour to support your version of the verbal agreement, such as someone agreeing to pay you £50 per week for the use of a car parking space and you have, for example, photographic evidence of their car being in that space and also bank statements showing them transferring £50 every week.  That sort of evidence can build up a picture to support any verbal agreement.

An audio-recording of a verbal agreement would also strengthen your chances of success if your claim boils down to a verbal agreement only.

it is generally you the claimant who must prove your case, and that your loss suffered is of direct consequence to the actions or lack of actions taken by the defendant. The standard of proof is the ‘balance of probabilities’ so, it must be demonstrated that your claim and what you allege to be the causes of your troubles are more likely to be the case (the defendants fault), than not, even if this cannot be 100%.

The courts must simply agree that your version of events is more likely than not to be true.

The duration in civil cases can vary greatly. At PSR Solicitors we will always aim for a non-court settlement, and one that satisfies our clients, as this route will always prove less expensive and quicker. 

The length of time it will take to conclude your case depends on the exact nature and the complexity of the dispute. We will be able to provide you with a more accurate idea on timescales our following initial consultations and conversations.

In most circumstances we are required to take certain steps before bringing court proceedings. Some types of claim are governed by specific Pre-Action Protocols

Pre-action examination of the facts and negotiations with the defendant (or their representatives) may last no longer than 2-4 weeks where circumstances are straightforward, but where clams and case are more sophisticated in nature, this initial stage could take months to conclude.

If court proceedings are issued, the case will normally be allocated to a track, based primarily on its value and complexity.

As a rough guide, a small claim will generally be concluded within 6 months and a fast track claim within 9 months, whereas multi-track claims generally take over 1 year to reach trial.

Tort claims

A "tort" is a wrongful act (sometimes called a "tortious" act), usually resulting in injury (or damage) to someone's person, property, reputation, or the like, for which the injured person is entitled to compensation.  Cases involving claims for such things as personal injury, battery, negligence, defamation, medical malpractice, fraud, and many others, are all examples. 

Breach of contract claims

 A breach of contract case typically results from a person's failure (or failure of a business) to perform some form of contract, whether the contract is written or oral, without some legitimate legal excuse. Cases involving claims for such things as not completing a job, not paying in full or on time, failing to deliver goods sold or promised, and many others, products being not of the quality promised…  are all examples. 

Equitable claims

An "equitable claim" asks the court to order a party to take some action or stop some action.  It sometimes, will be made in conjunction with a claim for financial compensation.  Cases where a party is seeking a temporary restraining order or injunction to stop something (perhaps the destruction of property, the improper transfer of land, the solicitation of a business' customers) are examples. 

Landlord/tenant issues

Civil courts handle disputes arising between tenants and landlords.  Such cases would involve events such as where a landlord is trying to evict a tenant from a rental property, or a tenant has moved out and is suing a landlord for the return of a security deposit.