News
5 February 2010
Dispute Resolution – Time is Money.
Disputes are a part of business life. The cost of management time dealing with disputes can be a major drain on a business as key staff are taken away from the “day job”.
Subject always to the overall discretion of the court, the usual rule is that the loser will pay the winner a proportion of the costs incurred.
Where lawyers have been engaged it is straightforward to establish a claim for those costs but what about your management time costs?
It is possible to seek to recover them as a claim for damages or as a claim for costs.
Damages
The wasted time of staff and management may be recoverable as a distinct head of damage if it can be shown that the time and resource was incurred as a direct consequence of the litigation and:
- the staff members were diverted from their normal activities and the diversion was considerable; and
- the diversion from those usual duties caused disruption and loss of revenue.
Costs
If work conducted by staff and management is of an expert nature and that staff member can be said to be an expert, such as an accountant or surveyor, and the work they conducted was directly related to the litigation it may be recoverable as part of a costs order.
The rationale for this is essentially that the cost of employing an external expert would normally be recoverable and that this has been avoided.
What Should You Do?
Evidence of the time spent, the nature of the work and who does it is absolutely crucial and in the first instance you should keep detailed notes and records of the time and resources used and, if relevant, what work or projects the dispute has taken you or your staff away from.
This will give us the best chance of helping you to recover this cost.
Early specialist legal advice from the Beswicks dispute resolution team is essential. Not only will this allow your claim or defence to be fully and properly set out but it will be approached in such a way so as to maximise your opportunity for the best possible commercial outcome.
For advice on any aspect of business dispute resolution contact Graham Neyt or Stephen Taylor on 01782 205 000 or email stephen.taylor@beswicks.com.
The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
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