It’s been four months since we set up our new service for court claims. As we announced earlier in the year, following the Baxter v Doble Landlord and Tenant case, a new definition of litigation was set by the court, and this meant that even advising in the background on a court case had the potential to be deemed as providing litigation.
As litigation is a ‘reserved legal activity’, only properly authorised people/firms can undertake such work. If this work is not completed by properly authorised people, cases can be struck out and the person found to be litigating runs the possibility of ending up in prison. Obviously, none of us here at Lawgistics wants a spell in prison, and neither do we want our members’ court cases being thrown out on a technicality. This is why we set up Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC and now offer an enhanced service for court claims via our in-house solicitors.
It has been an interesting four months and during this period we have seen members truly benefit from the new service.
Unfortunately, some members may sometimes find themselves in a position where we refuse to take their case as we cannot represent anyone without a properly arguable case or if we believe our client has acted improperly. This is an extremely rare situation, but our stance is in place to protect everyone involved.
There may be instances where our member’s case is not particularly strong, but we will find a way to use the law to argue our client’s side and often, to great success.
We also see cases where the consumer is acting unreasonably and while these cases are easier to defend, we still have to follow all the procedural steps to get the result.
Of course, dealers want to hear good news when they call for advice on our legal helpline or send over a case to either our caseworkers or our litigators. However, we provide advice in accordance with the law and this will sometimes not be what our clients want to hear. However, it is still good advice, whether or not a dealer may heartily disagree at the time of receiving it.
We have been supporting the motor trade for over 20 years. Since May 2023, we have been able to offer this litigation service which is heavily subsidised to ensure that our members, who as motor traders are often poorly and unfairly stereotyped, have the option to obtain affordable legal support should they find themselves in court for a motor trade-related matter.
Impression works with businesses across the automotive aftermarket supply chain such as parts suppliers, warehouse distributors, motor factors and independent garages. Covering all aspects of automotive aftermarket marketing, including social media, event management, customer newsletters and PR, Impression is able to quickly establish itself within a client’s business and work towards their objectives.
