Traders who choose to put tax at the bottom of their payment priorities are asking for trouble. However, in one case, a businessman persuaded a tax tribunal that he acted reasonably in delaying VAT payments so that he could pay his hard-pressed staff in...
Below is a brief explanation of what happens. We will be more than happy to explain this in greater detail as we go along and in fact it is our duty to do so.
Once you have signed up to our Conditional Fee Agreement we will then send a letter of claim to the person or organisation we believe is at fault for causing your accident.
In that letter we will set out the reasons why we hold them at fault for what happened to you.
That person or organisation must pass on our letter of claim to their insurance company who then has three months in which to investigate the accident circumstances and tell us whether they will admit responsibility or not for what happened to you.
If they accept liability then we will proceed to obtain an independent medical report setting out the injuries you suffered.
At the same time we will also take steps to work out what your claim for financial losses and expenses is worth.
Once we have the medical report worth and the calculation of what your claim for financial loss is worth, we will then work out what the total of your claim is. With your agreement, we will then proceed to negotiate a settlement of your claim for compensation.
When we and the other side’s insurance company have agreed a figure, subject to your approval, we will then sort out payment of our legal costs for acting on you behalf.
However, if the other side or Defendant, as they will be called during the claim, decide to deny that they were at fault through their insurers, then we will proceed to take court action against them. We will only do this if we continue to believe that you have a reasonable chance of success in winning the claim.
If for any reason we do not think that you will win the case then we will tell you and it is extremely likely that we will then have to stop acting for you.
If, as we would expect in the vast majority of cases, we still think you have a claim worth pursuing, we will take your matter forward by issuing court proceedings against the other side.
This will result in us having to comply with a number of procedural steps on your behalf to prepare the matter for trial before a judge.
At the court trial it is extremely likely that you will be represented by a barrister of our choosing who will present the case to the judge. The Defendant will do the same to counteract your arguments that they were at fault and then it will be up to the judge to decide whether we have proved our case that the other party was at fault for causing your injuries and financial losses. If that happens then you will be awarded compensation. If you lose, unfortunately you will recover nothing.