Commercial litigation

For breach of contract, the general rule is that if you wish to bring court proceedings, you must do so within six years of the date on which the contract was breached.

For negligence, the claim should be brought within six years of the date on which you suffered loss as a result of the defendant’s breach of duty.

The above time limits are just a general rule of thumb and we can advise you further on any limitation issues.

The general rule is that claims for £100,000 or less must start in the County Court, whereas claims for more than £100,000 may be started in the High Court. However, where a claim falls within the jurisdiction of the County Court the claimant may start it in the High Court if there is a special reason, such as complexity, to believe it would be better dealt with by a High Court judge. Without such a reason, claims worth less than £50,000 commenced in the High Court are usually transferred to the County Court.

This will depend on the type of dispute, how complex it is and Court timetabling. We can provide advice specific to your dispute. Complex or high value disputes, typically those worth over £100,000, generally take over a year to reach trial.

This is entirely dependent on the circumstances of your case. For complex cases, this can easily run into hundreds of thousands of pounds or more. We can discuss potential funding options once we have discussed your case.

The general rule is that the losing party pays the winning party’s costs. If the Court orders the unsuccessful party to pay the successful party’s costs, costs will either be agreed between the parties or assessed by the Court. The typical outcome is that the loser pays between half to three quarters of the successful party’s legal costs.

Almost never. If someone you are suing has no money or other assets in England and Wales which could be used to pay you, there is no way to recover your debt and will just be incurring additional costs in the attempt. If you are aware that a person or company which owes you money is going through bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings, you should register as a creditor in order to stand a chance of recovering your debt as part of those proceedings.

If you successfully sue someone and have a judgment against them, but they do not pay, you can apply to the court for enforcement of the judgment against them. There are a number of different ways this can be done, including allowing bailiffs to seize and sell assets, freezing the debtor’s money or assets or securing charges over their property so you receive the debt from sale proceeds when the property is sold.

It is not uncommon for emergency situations to arise, where immediate action is required to protect you. We can help you in these situations by applying to the court for:

1. Search and seizure orders – these orders allow us to search a defendants’ premises (in the presence of an independent solicitor) for crucial documents or items. This is usually done where a defendant is liable to destroy crucial documents and condemning evidence.
2. Negative injunctions – these are orders that stop your opponent taking certain damaging action.
3. Positive injunctions – these are orders that require your opponent to take certain positive action.
4. Freezing orders – it may be possible to obtain an order to freeze your opponent’s bank accounts and assets to prevent those assets being dissipated or moved out of the jurisdiction.

As you may be sued at any time, by anyone, and for any reason and it costs money to defend that claim, no matter how confident you are of success or how hopeless the claim may be. If you win, the usual rule is that the loser would pay your costs, but you may be seriously concerned that the claimant would not able to pay any legal costs awarded against it. In certain circumstances, you may be able to make an application to the court early on that a claimant pays money into court as security for your legal costs that they may be ordered to pay if they lose.

The legal issues around security for costs are complex and we are able to provide further advice on the merits of such an application.

Yes, the rules are clear that you must disclose all documents within your control that:

1. You rely on;
2. Adversely affect your own case;
3. Adversely affect another party’s case;
4. Support another party’s case; or
5. You are required to disclose by a relevant practice direction.

This duty extends to any documents you find at a later date as well. This means that an unhelpful document that comes to light after initial disclosure will need to be disclosed to the other side as soon as possible.