Instructing Your Litigation Lawyer

20/20 hindsight is without doubt one of the litigation lawyer's greatest assets.

If you do end up litigating you will be faced with a barrage of questions from your lawyer asking have you got this, have you got that, where was this variation agreed in writing, what will this witness say?

Be prepared for these questions. Sort out your file. Track down prospective witnesses who may have recorded relevant facts in diaries, delivery notes or time sheets.

When instructing a solicitor before you meet with him/her set out all of the relevant documentation in an indexed lever arch file subdivided as follows.

• Prepare a chronology and summary of the dispute
• Contractual Documentation
• Documents
• Invoices 
• Time sheets 
• Names, addresses and contact numbers for prospective witnesses with a summary of what you think they might say
• Correspondence in chronological order with the opposing party and any solicitors that may have been instructed
• Any experts’ reports that may have been commissioned.

Deliver the file to us a day or two before your meeting.

At Brethertons we prefer our clients to do as much of the initial "leg work" in a dispute as possible. This is for a number of reasons:

1. You do not need a legal qualification to get a file in order, prepare a chronology and get the names and addresses of prospective witnesses.

2. It saves our clients’ costs if they do the initial information gathering.

3. If our clients come to the initial meeting having found out that they cannot prove half of their case and have no witnesses to support them it makes for a shorter meeting than otherwise might be necessary!

4. If everything is in order on day one it is much easier for all concerned to issue any proceedings and comply with any timetable that the Court may order.