Disputes are part of life.
Wake Smith director Nick Lambert talks us through the litigation team - one of the most experienced in the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire area.
Human nature being what it is, disputes, whether between businesses or people,can arise at any time about practically anything, although commonly they tend to be the result of misunderstandings about what was agreed.
It is almost inevitable that every business no matter how well organised and managed will find itself involved in a dispute at some stage in its life.
Most business people are reasonable and commercially-minded, but some are not. Some see being so as a weakness, and want everything to be in their favour. That's when it can easily start to become personal and then reasoning tends to fly out of the window.
Ultimately, a point is reached where professional intervention is needed to resolve the problem.
Wake Smith's Litigation team of myself, Mark Serby, Liz Shaw, Holly Dobson and Stephen Thompson is one of the most experienced in the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire area.
Mark, Holly, Stephen and I have around 30 years’ litigation experience each and Liz is catching us up with 22 years. No other litigation departments in the region can boast this level of experience.
For our clients, whatever the size of company, this expertise means they will deal personally with one of us rather than being delegated to some more junior member of staff as tends to happen in most other law firms.
There is practically no type of civil or commercial dispute (with the exception of defamation and Admiralty matters) which the Litigation team here is not used to handling on behalf of Wake Smith’s clients’ old or new whether private individuals, small businesses or large corporations.
Day in, day out we spend our time fighting our clients’ corner in and out of the courts and tribunals up and down the country.
The types of disputes we deal with are endless and the following are just some examples of our daily work.
- Contractual Disputes
- Disputes about the ownership of land or about rights over land (in either the commercial or residential context)
- Disputes between Landlords and their Tenants (both commercial and residential)
- Disputes arising out of the sale and purchase of companies and businesses (including warranty claims)
- Disputes between Shareholders
- Partnership disputes
- Unfair prejudice petitions
- Disputes about the validity of wills, or about inheritances or about the administration of estates
- Building disputes
- Disputes between agents and principals/buyer and seller/banks and finance companies and their customers.
- Disputes about the sale, purchase and ownership of goods
- Disputes about Intellectual property, patents, trade-marks etc
- Debt recovery and financial disputes
- Commercial fraud
- Disputes with insurance companies
- Professional negligence of solicitors, accountants, surveyors, architects etc
- Professional regulation and administrative law
- Building disputes
You probably get the message - we cover legal disputes with anyone in relation to just about anything.
Where a dispute includes a property element, the litigation team is able to rely on support from one of the largest teams of commercial property lawyers in the South Yorkshire.
In addition at Wake Smith we have a team of specialist employment lawyers engaged in dealing with all aspects of employment disputes.
We have access to, and relationships with, the best barristers and experts available for differing types of disputes who we can call on for our client’s benefit as and when the need arises.
We understand that sometimes it’s not always just about fighting as hard as you can. Often it’s better for commercial or financial reasons to avoid the dispute escalating in the first place or, if hostilities have already broken out, to try and find a way to carve out acceptable settlement terms.
In that situation all of the members of our litigation team have considerable experience of the techniques not only for achieving successful negotiations, but also for resolving disputes by alternative means, commonly these days by mediation
We also understand that litigation can be costly and possibly disruptive in terms of the management time that it diverts. Our clients expect us to give them clear advice, both at the outset and as the dispute develops, about the cost of the matter and of all the particular options which might be open. Also the risks and potential benefits of those options
Early on in the process we will work with you to develop an endgame strategy and associated budget in order to try and resolve the dispute to your satisfaction. Understanding what you want to achieve from the process, and working out how to try and get you there as quickly and cheaply as possible, is key to what we do.
If you have allowed an issue to drift and need to take action, maybe 2016 is the time to get it resolved once and for and get in touch with out litigation team here at Wake Smith.
