Litigation

Litigation means the resolution of disputes through the court process. Sometimes litigation may be necessary, despite your best efforts to steer clear of a dispute.

If the other party is blatantly infringing your rights, or is making completely unreasonable demands, then litigation may be unavoidable. Similarly, if you have made a bad deal (for example, franchise contracts can sometimes turn out to have been a poor investment) and it is too costly to continue with the contract, you may have no alternative but to terminate early, and risk being sued.

If an initial exchange of correspondence with the other party is not enough to stave off litigation, you will need to consider the likely impact of court proceedings.

This will include:

• The cost of litigation. See our page on Funding Litigation
• Loss of time to your business
• Reputational damage caused by the publicity of litigation
• Personal or Business readjustments required if litigation is unsuccessful

There are certain timescales which must be observed to lodge and progress court proceedings. It is essential to contact a solicitor as soon as you are aware you may have to engage in litigation.

We will provide full cost estimates for sending a letter before action and initiating legal proceedings. We work closely with leading intellectual property barristers to appear in the High Court, County Court, the Patent Office or the Trade Mark and Design Registry.

Our business model enables us to keep our overheads low, and yet bring together a large and expert team to handle most sizes of dispute, so please contact us for an initial consultation.