Commercial Dispute Resolution

The disputes we see most are payment and invoice disputes, breach of contract claims, disputes with suppliers and distributors, building and construction disputes, professional negligence claims, and disputes between the owners and managers of companies, including shareholder, director and partnership fallouts. The common thread is that each has a commercial outcome that matters more than the legal label, and the strategy should be built around that outcome.

Proceedings follow the Civil Procedure Rules. The pre action protocol requires the claim to be set out in correspondence and answered before issue. Once issued, the claim is followed by a defence, disclosure of documents, exchange of witness statements and, where needed, expert evidence, before trial. The court actively manages the timetable and encourages settlement throughout. Most claims settle before trial, and costs generally follow the event.

A properly conducted pre action phase takes weeks. An issued claim typically takes a year or more to reach trial, depending on the court, the track and the complexity. Settlement can happen at any point, and in our experience most disputes resolve either at the pre action stage or around the exchange of evidence, when both sides can finally see the whole board.

The pre action protocol requires the parties to exchange sufficient information to understand each other’s position and to consider a form of ADR, and the courts can order the parties to engage in it. Unreasonable refusal risks costs sanctions even for a winning party. In practice, a well conducted resolution attempt either settles the dispute or strengthens the litigation that follows.

A letter before claim sets out the basis of the claim, the facts, what is demanded and the deadline for a substantive response, in accordance with the pre action protocol. It is required before issuing proceedings in almost every commercial dispute, and it is also the cheapest weapon in the case: a properly drafted letter shows the other side the claim is real, the lawyer is capable and the cost of ignoring it will be theirs.

The general rule in court proceedings is that the losing party pays the winning party’s costs, but recovery is at the court’s discretion and is rarely 100%. Conduct, including any unreasonable refusal of settlement offers or mediation, affects the outcome. In negotiation and mediation each party typically bears its own costs unless the settlement provides otherwise. We advise on realistic recovery before you commit.

Sometimes not, and it is better to know that first. Before proceedings we assess the target’s ability to pay, including accounts, assets, charges and group structure, and we advise on enforcement routes from charging orders to winding up petitions. A strong claim against an empty company is worth less than a modest claim against a solvent one, and your strategy should reflect that.

Contentious work is simply legal work involving a dispute, as opposed to transactional work such as drafting, so all litigation is contentious by definition. Complex litigation is a label for disputes with multiplying dimensions: several parties, several claims, expert evidence across disciplines, cross border elements or substantial disclosure. The labels change the resourcing more than the law, and our approach is the same at every scale: establish the position, build the evidence, and resolve the dispute at the lowest cost that achieves the outcome. Whatever label your dispute carries, tell us about it and you will have a same day response.