FAQs

If liability is not opposed and injuries are not very serious, a claim can be finalised within months of the accident. In more serious cases this can be a lot longer. Again, your case will be individual to you, speak to one of your team who can help you.

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This depends. We can help you recover compensation for your injuries, loss of earnings, medical expenses etc. There are cases where you may be partly responsible for your injuries and your compensation will be altered accordingly. Even in some modest claims, the amounts can run into thousands of pounds. In larger and more serious cases, sometimes millions.

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We acted for a major high street bank on a £7million re-financing of a North West theme park.

We acted for a commercial bank on the £5million funding of a business involved in the production of printed packaging including specialist security documentation in respect of plants and equipment.

Acting for a bank, we have recovered assets of a failed company for the benefit of the creditors by tracing down a series on complex transactions though the companies in the group to get to the funds filtered away. The amount at stake was approximately US$10billion.

We won a case against the discounting arm of a major high street bank at trial by creating a minute by minute account of the interaction between bank and client and a detailed analysis of the bank's own terms and conditions. We showed that they had not followed them and had no entitlement to take the aggressive action they had against our client.

We have beaten back the claim of another high street bank against our business client to penalties claimed on a percentage basis.

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If no comment is made on interview, at a later stage, maybe at trial, inferences can be made from the silence - particularly if you try to raise a defence. We will advise you.

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If no comment is made on interview -, at a later stage, maybe at trial, inferences can be made from the silence, particularly if you try to raise a defence. We will advise you.

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Everyone has a right to be granted bail but there will be times when previous circumstances will make it difficult. If the offence is serious you may not be granted bail. Again, a complex area and one which you should not hesitate to discuss with us.

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A short telephone discussion with one of our team will usually put your mind at rest on this one. Sometimes it is relatively easy to advise that you have a claim. It is probably easier if you pick up the phone and talk to one of our team, they are here to help you.

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Usually 3 things - liability, causation and quantum. Cutting to the chase:-

Liability - We have to prove who is to blame for your injuries.

Causation - what caused your injury? Is it an injury you had prior to the accident made worse but not caused wholly by the accident?

Quantum - the value of your claim, how much your claim is worth. We may be able to recover sums of money for not only your injuries, but also loss of past and future earnings, care costs, travel costs etc.

Remember, what we do for someone today, we may not do for you tomorrow. Every case is different, we examine your case and discuss it with you personally.

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Everyone has a right to be granted bail but there will be times when previous circumstances will make it difficult. If the offence is serious you may not be granted bail. Again, a complex area and one which you should not hesitate to discuss with us.

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We acted for a substantial company in the climatic control sector in redrafting its trading terms and conditions and appointment of commercial agents.

We acted for a master chef in a contract with a food processing company for production of his recipe sauces.

We acted for a client who resolved a dispute by splitting the various enterprises owned by him and his joint venture partners between them. We helped make the deal and negotiated the complex suites of agreements.

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We acted for 11 managers in an MBO of a North West finance company where each manager took an individual financial stake.

We acted for a North West company in its aqcuisition of a 14 company group of companies in the paper processing sector.

Our client is bringing a £3.5m claim for breach of warranty. The case is ongoing. We look forward to reporting a happy ending for our team on these pages.

Our client was a minority shareholder and employee. She had no way of knowing if the warranties in the sale and purchase agreement were correct. We advised her and negotiated a wording that would protect her from a warranty claim. It came anyway, but the Dispute Section of the team argued strongly enough that the claimant abandoned it without our client having to face a big bill and we got her costs paid by the opponent.

We negotiated a settlement of a claim against our seller-client for breach of warranty on the sale of a business supplying chemists shops. The claimant said the stock was less than it expected. We appointed an arbitrator, but persuaded the buyer to settle favourably with our client. Again, they did not have to face a big bill.

When our client faced a claim under a warranty provision as to occupation levels in a care home, we advised on the unsatisfactory wording of the contract drafted by another firm. The client did not want to make a claim against his former solicitor but wanted to be paid the full agreed price of the business, so we went to arbitration. Our client was not well. We spotted the likely danger to his health of a trial. We negotiated a settlement that left the client well and happy and much better off financially.

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Disputes between trading partners take account of the value to our clients of their claims, the cost of pursuing them and the possible desire on our clients' part for future business with an opponent. As with all our litigation, we identify the true issues, set out the "traps" and advise on ways forward. We agree a plan and a cost budget and put the plan into effect. We build up close knit teams of professionals to support a case; to trial if need be.

Many trade disputes are about the quality of what is delivered or the time of delivery. To win, we need to get up to our eyes in the emails and faxes flying back and forth because we know that people doing business just want to get the job done. The messages they send are not written with an eye on a court case. Our job is to fit them into a legal framework after the event.

A number of our clients use commercial agents to sell their products. Disputes arise when the seller and the agent part company or sales are not what they were expected to be.

In a complex claim for late delivery of goods that then turned out to be defective, we cut through the morass of bits of paper to get to the nuts and bolts of all the variations in the terms of the contract and the extensions of time for delivery to put forward a clear case on who was supposed to do what and when so that our opponent had no alternative but to agree to pay damages and costs.

We fended off a claim for damages made against a distributor who had not paid for goods because he said that he seller was in breach of the agreement by appointing another distributor and selling into the market himself. The case introduced some tricky issues of the law in three other European countries.

Our client, a clothing manufacturer, would have gone bust if we lost his case against his customer for not paying the bill. The opponent customer said that some of the charges were included in the price. His opponent produced a letter in the late stages of the case before trial that, taken at its face meaning, was conclusive proof of the opponent's case. The letter was signed by a representative of our client overseas who could not come and give evidence. We got an order for taking evidence overseas, moved the Court to the witness and heard his evidence. The case stopped there. Rather than leave the Judge to find that the letter had been forged ,the opponent threw in the towel and our client won.

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We recovered a substantial sum for a delightful client who has been diddled out of the benefit of her business by the other shareholder, who thought that is was acceptable to throw her off the premises, tell her clients she was not working and then start up another company into which she transferred the business. We did it by digging into the accounts of our client's business to spot the connection between the new and the old. When we revealed that our opponent had been found out, she paid up.

Helped greatly by the bravery of our client – he took our robust advice – we achieved a good settlement in a fight over a business worth over £50m.

When our client's former partner filched a seven figure sum from the business, we brought the case to victory by a close analysis of the numerous documents to show that the case the opponent put forward was just not possible.

Our client had a great win when we defeated a claim involving false names, international intrigue and allegations that our client's opponent had paid for his brother's murder to get his hands on assets. Again, how did we do it? Attention to detail and getting up to our elbows in the paperwork.

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The main contractor did not pay our client subcontractor's interim certificates to the point where our client was concerned that it could not carry on trading. We advised that our client was entitled to treat the failure to pay as such a serious breach that he could terminate the contract and leave site. Our client could get on with his business and get paid on other jobs while we got in the money outstanding. Working closely with the client, we disproved all the allegations of defective work so that there was an early settlement of the claims.

Our client commissioned a new factory building. The workmanship was very poor and the floor slab failed badly. We brought proceedings. We were concerned about the ability of the opponent to pay. We checked what money was available and negotiated a settlement so that all the money could be paid to our client and not spent on the opponent's legal fees before he had a trial.

We used the same device the other way round. When our client did not have enough money to pay a claim that he was bound to lose, we negotiated a settlement at such a reduced sum that he stayed in business.

The wall of our client's building collapsed when the neighbour excavated under the level of the foundations of the party wall. We took proceedings against the neighbour and the excavations contractor. They brought in other parties. Cash flow was an issue for our client. We pushed the case to trial within 18 months of the incident. Our client settled for full value and costs just before the trial. We organised special funding for the case so that our client could afford to carry on with the action and recover damages and costs.

We advised an entrepeneur on a construction contract for his new factory. We had sucessfully sued the contractor on behalf of another client in the previous year and we were also able to advise on getting good insurance.

Christine Oxenburgh, while in Hong Kong,advised on the contract of the cross-harbour tunnel. She also took proceedings about delays on the construction of the iconic Hong Kong Bank building amongst many projects in which she was involved. Christine Oxenburgh says that she can navigate around Hong Kong by reference to the buildings she advised on or litigated over.

We were involved in litigation about scaffolding on the Battersea Power Station, another iconic building still under re-development.

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We acted for a North West based waste management compay in negotiating contracts with land owners to maximise land fill capability.

In the couse of administration of an estate we acted for executors in obtaining planning consent in development of the garden of the family home including taking the application to appeal after losing at first instance. The result - an extra £200,000 for the beneficiaries who were delighted with the result.

We are currently fighting a claim by a householder over rights to light.

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We beat off a claim made against our franchisee client who set up a new but similar business. We made out such a convincing case that the franchisor has deprived the franchisee of the benefit of the contract by selling other franchises in areas she already operated that the franchisor backed off completely. The new business was a great success and we are still in touch with our client.

With our help and advice, a franchisor client was able to oppose claims from franchisees that the franchises were of no value. For another franchisor, we were able to fend off the DTI who claimed that the franchise business was run in a way contrary to public policy. We advised on ways of avoiding the situation happening again.

We acted for a franchisor company in the franchising to seven franchisees of its specialist services in the health care sector.

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We have worked to protect the name and the rights of a household name that is constantly being attacked by organisations.

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Acting for an assigning business tenant of industrial premises under a pre 1995 lease we successfully resisted the landlord's efforts to make the assignee contractually liable for a residual term of 72 years. Failure would have lost our client its potential customer.

Acting for a landlord we successfully obtained an upward rent review linked to a hypothetical retail use where the tenants actual use was offices which would normally have yealded a lower rent.

We secured payment of a tricky claim for delapidations where the lease (drafted by other solicitors) was not clear as to what was and what was not included in the demise. The case was complicated by the tenant's change of identity being masked when the lease had been renewed. A classic case of a name swap between companies.

We recently secured a tidy sum in damages for a client facing a claim for possession on the grounds of intention to re-develop from the landlord. We still think the landlord did not see the strength of his own case.

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Acting for partners wishing to leave a professional partnership we sucessfully negotiated a complex dissolution agreement which gave the outgoing partners business continuity without damaging their own existing client base.

Our client's partnership on a multi million pound project went sour when he found out that his partners were taking more than their share. Our client accepted our advice to take the courageous step of terminating the agreement for breach. Litigation was commenced but avoided by the negotiation of a settlement.

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Acting for a developer we were succcesful in the acquisition of a mixed portfolio of freehold reversions, leasehold reversions and occupation leaseholds in the Clarkenwell area of London for a total consideration of £20million.

Acting for a property investor we acted in the acquisition of 22 freehold sites from a high street retailer with contemporaneous leasebacks to the same retailer.

We won a claim against the neighbour of our client's commercial premises who had built too close to the boundary. The value of the developent to the neighbour was far higher than the value of the land. The cost of demolition was prohibitive so our client settled for a fat sum.

Our client was annoyed that the owner of a right of way across his commercial site did not just drive trucks over it but also parked them on it. We secured an order preventing the parking.

Our client had a problem from a right of way over his land in favour of his neighbour. By advising him to apply for adverse possession of a piece of land the effect of the right of way was drastically reduced.

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