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Personal Dispute: What is Professional Negligence? You may consider that you received bad advice or that you did not achieve what you set out to achieve. Professionals are duty bound to provide their services to a required standard. If you instructed a professional and they failed to fulfil their role to that required standard you may be able to bring a claim against them if you suffered a loss as…

Business Dispute: Should I have a written partnership agreement? Yes. In the absence of a written agreement there’s the risk of argument as to what was agreed between the partners, and the law can impose things which you would otherwise never have intended.The costs of trying to fix a problem will be significantly more expensive than having a proper agreement in place at the outset to minimise the risks of…

Business Dispute: My business partner has signed us up to a contract I don’t agree with. Are we bound by it? Probably yes – a partner has the ability to bind the entire firm.However, if you think the contract shouldn’t have been entered into – or you have a written partnership agreement which would limit the ability to enter into contracts of a certain value unilaterally – you might have…

Unless otherwise agreed, partnership assets can only be used for the business of that partnership.

A written partnership agreement is the governing document which sets out what you can and can’t do, and how to do it. If you don’t follow those terms you will be in breach, regardless of how bad the other partner’s conduct was.

The legal process to wind up a limited company may seem as a straight-forward technical process.

My partner is being made bankrupt – does that affect our house or my own assets? The precise answer to this will depend on the detail. A share of jointly owned assets can form part of a bankrupt estate – but the ability to enforce against that asset has restrictions. Similarly, a Trustee in Bankruptcy can review historic transactions of a Bankrupt person to reclaim assets into a bankrupt estate.…

Debt Recovery: Someone can’t pay me – can I bankrupt them? The short answer is yes – but only where there isn’t a dispute as to the debt; and there is still a process to follow.You should also consider if bankruptcy is likely to get you paid at a proportionate cost, other options are available. Our debt recovery team can provide you with details of all of the options and…

Debt Recovery: Someone is threatening to bankrupt me, what should I do? First – do you admit owing the money? If not, then get in touch because where there is a “genuine dispute” as to a debt, a creditor cannot make someone bankrupt (or liquidate a company). However, if you receive any formal documents then there are very strict time limits for responding so don’t delay.If you admit owing the…

Corporate and Commercial: What is due diligence in the context of a business sale? When selling a business, there is no legal requirements for the seller to disclose any issues or liabilities to the buyer. The buyer can ask questions and request information about the business, which is known as due diligence and forms an important part of the process of buying a business.The answers and information provided by the…