A local family owned company came to see us a couple of years ago when they received a County Court summons issued by a large cleaning company who were claiming in the region of £12,000 for alleged breach of contract. The cleaning company had signed them up on a three year contract to clean their premises. Things hadn’t gone well and the contract had been terminated, although which side terminated it, and whether they were entitled to, was in dispute. The case was due to be tried in the Derby County Court at the end of January 2013 but two days before the trial the cleaning company dropped almost their entire claim and agreed instead to pay our client almost £9,000 toward their costs.
And the reason? When our clients brought us the contract to look at we were able to tell them straight away that the clauses the cleaning company were trying to enforce would be construed as penalties by the court and the case would almost certainly be dismissed. As it happens we told the cleaning company the same thing but for nearly two years they chose not to believe us. Presumably, at the eleventh hour they took legal advice themselves (they were running the litigation in house) but they may now be wishing that they had taken the advice before they spent two years racking up court costs rather than at the last minute.
Our clients on the other hand are delighted, and think that they have a very good firm of solicitors, which of course they have……
