What sort of questions will we ask you? It depends what your dispute is about, but you’ll often find us asking clients:
- who said what and when?
- could we see the contract?
- have you got a copy of that email?
- when was that invoice sent?
- did they confirm that in writing?
You mightn’t have everything we’re looking for, but it really helps for us to see whatever you do have. Ideally, you will have collected all the relevant pieces of paper and ordered them in a file; you will have written down the relevant facts; and you’ll have an idea about witnesses you might be able to rely on to support what you say.
Ideally let us have this information before we meet. It means we’ll have a chance to review it beforehand and so at our first meeting we will be able to drill deeper into the issues and make better progress.
Why are we asking you to do the legwork? It means that you are not paying us to. Litigation can become expensive, and we would far rather you didn’t pay for things you could – and may actually be better placed to – do. It’s part of our commitment to keeping costs as low as possible.
Getting things in order
You really don’t need a legal qualification to do this. Think about exactly what was happened, and pull together relevant:
- contracts
- invoices
- time sheets
- documents
- names and addresses of potential witnesses
- a summary of what those witnesses might say
- a chronology of events – a simple timeline of what happened
- any correspondence with your opponent and/or their solicitor
- expert reports.
Trust us, organising the evidence from day one will stand your case in great stead to proceed. And if we think it’s unlikely to succeed, we’ll be able to let you know early on – without you having incurred heavy legal fees.
