Disputes Litigation Mediation

Disputes, Litigation, and Mediation

Kerseys’ Dispute Resolution team have many years of solving personal disputes by means of negotiation, mediation, and if necessary litigation.

For business and commercial mediation, disputes or litigious matters, please go to our business page.

We have worked on disputes ranging in value from millions of pounds to a few hundred pounds. We realise that whatever the financial value of a claim, it matters to clients to get a good, cost-effective and timely result.

Ours is a pragmatic approach to dispute resolution, committed to working out the most cost-effective way of resolving issues for you – by negotiation, arbitration, mediation, litigation or a combination of these methods.

We know cost is always of great importance, so we aim to work flexibly with you in order to accommodate your budget. We are able to carry out a risk assessment to determine the prospects of success in any particular case. In some instances we may also be able to offer advice at a discounted rate, or on a no-win-no-fee basis.

The Legal 500 has praised our team for providing “prompt responses, clear advice and good value for money.”

Successes

• Injunction application against franchisee for breach of contract.
• Court of Appeal case on definition of licence.
• Damages claim against a local authority for abuse in children’s homes, an action which achieved national media coverage.
• Judicial Review action to prevent hospital closure.
• Insurance ombudsman claim against insurance company which refused to pay out on a health policy.
• Emergency eviction of travellers from land contaminated by chemicals.
• Damages claim against a credit company for unlawfully repossessing the client’s vehicle as featured in law reports.
• Acting for the beneficiary of an estate worth in the region of £900,000 in High Court proceedings, successfully defending claims made against the estate on the basis of alleged testamentary incapacity.

How much does it cost?

We understand that legal costs for dispute work are an unexpected expense and we will always do our best to minimise them for you where we can, for instance by agreeing to do stages of work for you — such as advice, drafting of legal papers, or attendance in court — with you dealing with other stages yourself if you wish. Our charges are competitive generally, but equally we say beware of advice that you choose just because it is the cheapest; what is important is the value you will get.

At Kerseys you will only be advised by an experienced solicitor who is likely to have seen your problem or a similar one before, and where this is not the case we have access to a large network of specialist barristers.

We will always provide you with an estimate of costs for work we are instructed to do for you. We will  always work with you to keep your legal costs down. In some areas, such as termination of assured shorthold tenancies for landlords, we are able to offer fixed-price services (see our Landlord Service page and the associated Guidance Notes) as well as for aspects of debt collection: see Commercial Debt Recovery Service.

To new clients, where possible, we will offer a fixed-fee interview for initial advice up to 45 minutes, usually by way of appointment but also by telephone if it is too far or too difficult for you to come in. Our current fixed-fee interview prices range from £100 to £200 plus vat payable in advance, depending on type of case and complexity.

This does not include any pre-reading of papers. We can quote for reading these, but our advice is in most cases to bring your documents with you and we can discuss them in the interview and then give an estimate for full reading afterwards if that is required.

In appropriate cases where there are only one or two short background documents we need to read first, we may offer a fixed-fee interview plus a letter to the other party for a fee of £175 plus vat.