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Top Tips before you sue: there might be a better way to protect your rights

Before suing someone there are a few things that you need to understand to ensure that this is the best route for you to pursue your rights.

Here are our top tips for consideration:

1 Understand the Costs
Taking someone to court can involve costs to cover legal fees, court costs and other expenses such as expert witness testimony. If you win you are still liable for your solicitor’s fees and other costs, but can normally recover all or some of these from the losing party. If you lose you may be liable for the winning party’s costs as well as your own.

Your conduct before and during proceedings can affect your capacity to recover costs.

Working with a solicitor, such as PowellsLaw, gives you access to advice on the strength of your case and likelihood of winning

2 Explore Funding Options

The PowellsLaw team can help you identify options to limit your financial exposure. These could include: deferring payment until the case is settled; fixed or capped fees; or litigation funding where a 3rd party funds your case in a return for a share of any damages or awards.

Other options include conditional fees, which include a success fee if you win, and damages based agreements where your solicitor takes a percentage of the damages. Insurance can sometimes be arranged to cover your opponent’s fees should you lose. We can also offer you flexible payment options such as ‘pay as you go’ to allow you to manage the overall cost and limit your expenditure to manageable chunks.

3 Be Logical
Emotions can sometimes take over, but listen to your solicitor who will be able to look at things a little bit more dispassionately. We will always give you a clear assessment of your chances and tell you whether mediation, for example, might be a better option.

4 Be Patient
Even a case routed through the small claims court can take 6 months to be concluded. Fast track and multi-track cases will probably take over a year.

Remember, recovering costs and damages is not always straightforward. The judgement creditor has the power to enforce the settlement through taking control of assets, attachment to earnings or ultimately insolvency proceedings.

If you are considering starting a case contact our professional and experienced Litigation team on 01934 637 906 who can assist you.

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