COURT OR MEDIATION

Thanks for the support Kevin.

My Solicitor has just informed me that the company has had a CCJ against it this month and has advised me to go straight to claims as I have sent numerous demands and a final letter yesterday warning of court action via email attachment and recorded delivery.

Hi - one of my clients has recently been successful in mediation. Successful in that there was a settlement figure agreed via the Court appointed Mediator. Not the full outstanding amount but factor in, time at court, stress, phone calls etc they accepted a reduced figure. The agreement will be sealed by the Court and therefore is a binding agreement.
I think you have to be quite pragmatic here, do they have the money, do you have the time & funds & stamina, for a Court appearance (not all costs are recoverable in small claims as I understand).
This is the only experience I can refer to and my client is relieved to have the matter settled, albeit, a reduced figure.
I hope that helps in the discussions.

Sorry for the delay in replying and thank you for the comments.

I am now in the process of arranging mediation; my claim has been allocated to the fast track (???). I have exchanged my statements and Documents and received nothing from the defendant. I have since received an email from a solicitor who says he has been appointed as the defendants solicitor, though I have no official paperwork from him as yet.

He has pointed out, that my statements are not correctly formatted so I am in the process of getting them signed again. All had a statement that 'This is true to the best of my knowledge' however I have complied. I have also stated that I am a lay person and he is ahead of me in law and pointed out his duties to me (under advice). I applied for the defence to be struck as no evidence has been provided. I also wrote saying that I am willing to go to mediation paying 50% costs each but will not until I see a defence.
I have also received statements from former employees and free lance workers that are still owed money (in the 1000's) and a statement from the security company (deals in debt recovery as well as body guard duties) that he employed for his own protection when his management staff left. This statement points out his dishonesty and unwillingness to pay despite making agreements to do so through the security company.
Think it is all delaying tactics as the defendant had a big tax bill to pay.

I will keep you posted.

Hi all,
Just to update you on my situation. Over the last 2 months I have been deep in arguments with the defendants appointed solicitor, the basis of which was they stated that no debt was owed as I had not supplied my services to the implied contractual standard, and therefore no interest could be charged.

I had taken legal advice and was fully prepared for the court case management that was due last week on 16/05/11. The defendant decided to phone me directly on Friday 13/05/11 and have a ‘without prejudice’ discussion. The upshot of this was that I refused all his offers. I did agree that I would deduct the interest and penalties and he could pay the £15000 owed over a 18 month period and a Tomlin Order was presented to the courts to effect this.

Although I am not overjoyed at the time period I am happy with the result as long as payments are made. In all it has cost me £600 in legal advice and £900 in court fees, £500 of which will be reimbursed.

My solicitor informed me that I had saved thousands of pounds by using the templates and guidance given on this site and I am truly grateful for the support and advice given to me.

I have also passed on this site details to all the other Freelance subcontractors that are owed money by the defendant and by using the templates provided many have had satisfactory results already.

Once again thank you for all your assistance, without groups like this the shysters would not be put in check and made to pay their dues.