Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC is an associated company of Lawgistics Limited that has been set up to offer subsidised legal support for our members who have court cases.

Cases which end up in court make up a very small percentage of all the cases sent over to Lawgistics. However, once a court claim is issued, we can only provide further assistance if the matter is transferred over to Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC. Once in the CIC, we can fully manage your court case, allowing you to get on with what you do best. The service is similar to what you would receive from a High Street Solicitor but is conducted at a much-subsidised rate and dealt with by experienced motor trade experts.

From the moment a claim is issued against your business, we can take on overall management of the claim and expertly guide you through the court process. The CIC is not a regulated entity but is managed by our Head of Legal Services, Nona Bowkis, who is a solicitor regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

We are transparent about the way we work and have made our fee system both straightforward and fair.

Small Claims (value £10,000 or less) £297.00 per case

Service includes:
all in-house work including telephone support and liaising with the other side
writing defences
drafting of witness statements

A fixed fee of £297 plus VAT must be paid to Lawgistics Litigation before work begins.

Fast Track & Intermediate Track Cases (value £10,001-£100,000) 10% of the total amount claimed

Service includes:
all in-house work including telephone support and liaising with the other side
writing defences*
drafting of witness statements
management of the additional steps as ordered by the court
drafting instructions to counsel where appropriate

A fee of 10% of the total amount claimed by the other side must be paid to Lawgistics Litigation in two instalments:

• the first instalment must be paid before work begins
• the second instalment must be paid at the witness statement stage (which is later in the case)

Should settlement be reached between the parties at any point before work begins on the witness statement, the second instalment will not fall due.

*For both the Fast Track and Intermediate Track cases, it may be beneficial to instruct a barrister to draft a defence but this will be case dependent, and your caseworker will discuss this, and any other additional costs (disbursements), with you to ensure you receive the best possible advice for the particular circumstances of your case.

Disbursement Costs

For all types of cases, there will be disbursement to pay in addition to our fees. These are unavoidable charges completely separate from what we do and include items such as court fees and the fee to instruct a barrister or expert.

For any other type of case including an application or the issue of a claim against a third party, the fee will be calculated on a case-by-case basis depending on factors such as timescales, complexity, and the chances of success.

We are the leading legal specialists in the motor trade with over 20 years of unrivalled experience, and our favourable rates provide exceptional value for money.

Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC is a community interest company registered in England and Wales (Company Number 14781435).

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Terms and Conditions of Lawgistics Litigation

1. Who We Are
   1. Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC (CIC) is a Community Interest Company set up to provide subsidised legal support for the motor trade community, that is those engaged in the sale of motor vehicles, their repairs and directly allied businesses and organisations. All members of Lawgistics Limited, which is an industry specific Trade Association, are entitled to subsidised litigation support from the CIC.
   2. Our legal team is supervised by our in-house solicitor Nona Bowkis who holds a current practising certificate and is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Under Solicitors Regulation Authority Regulations, we are required to hold ‘adequate and appropriate insurance’. This is in place with AXIS Insurance, 1st Floor, 52 Lime Street, London, EC3M 7AF, United Kingdom.
2. Your Case
   1. As Nona Bowkis is a solicitor of England and Wales only, we can only provide help and support for court cases within the English and Welsh courts. This includes helping to defend Trading Standards prosecutions.
   2. We only assist members of Lawgistics Limited and we do this at subsidised rates which will be published on our website at Lawgistics.co.uk/litigation and will be subject to change on at least 30 days’ notice.
   3. At the outset of your case, we will provide you with a Letter of Engagement which will summarise your case, confirm fees, provide information about how your case will be managed and set out our complaints process.  All cases may be subject to external charges such as barrister fees, court fees and expert fees and members remain liable for those in addition to our in-house fees. If anything in the letter is unclear, you must seek clarification from your caseworker before continuing to use our service.
   4. If a conflict arises between members, we will advise you if it is not appropriate for us to act for one or both Parties. In that instance, we may be able to refer you to our Lawgistics Arbitration service.
   5. As we are a specialist Trade Association, we will only take on motor trade related cases and we reserve the right to refuse to assist with a case for any reason we deem necessary.
   6. Each caseworker will work with you on your case and will provide you with what they believe to be the best advice for your individual circumstances. No two cases are the same and the caseworker may recommend that you, for example, pay to have a barrister draft your defence or engage an engineer to provide an expert report. These additional costs are called disbursements and need to be paid in addition to our in-house fee.
   7. In most cases, we will go on court record which will mean the court will write to us directly about your case. However, you are responsible for passing on any documents which the court or any Party may send to you about the case. If you do not pass on such documents in a timely manner, this is likely to adversely affect your case and compromise our ability to assist you. We have no liability for any adverse outcomes from such delays.
   8. You must provide us with timely and proper instructions and disclose to us any documents or information relating to the case. Unless we have all the available information, we will not be able to fully advise you.
   9. If we do not hear from you at any point in the case more than 14 days after contacting you, we reserve the right to cease working on your case and we will need to advise the court that we are no longer instructed. If the court advise that we need to make an application to come off record, you must sign the relevant paperwork to enable our application. If you do not provide your signature, we will need to make an application and the cost of that application will be passed on to you.  If appropriate, we will shorten your membership with Lawgistics in lieu of any unpaid debt in this regard.
   10. Your caseworker will be working on multiple cases at any one time, and they will need to prioritise accordingly. This may mean they do not get back to you as soon as you might wish but in some circumstances, this will be unavoidable due to deadlines or unexpected complexities that have arisen elsewhere. If you are concerned about any time delay, you should contact Court Admin at [email protected] and they will check internally to ascertain the reason for any delay.
3. Fees
   1. Our fees are as set out above, and in your Client Engagement Letter.
   2. You are responsible for paying the fees as they are invoiced to you.
   3. If payment is not made, we will add statutory interest which is at the rate of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. We will also add a fixed recovery fee in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Representation may cease until your fees are paid. (See 4 below)
   4. As these subsidised rates are only available to Lawgistics Members, any cancellation, non-renewal or failure to maintain your subscription for your Lawgistics Membership will be deemed as a withdrawal of instructions to act for you and consequently, Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC will cease working on your case, and we will come off record unless the payments are restored within 24 hours. You will thereafter become immediately responsible for all administration of your case including meeting any deadlines imposed by the court, on the basis that your Lawgistics Membership will have lapsed. The same applies if we have good reason to cancel your Lawgistics membership.
4. Disbursements and Costs
   1. Our fees cover our in-house work only. In all court cases there will be additional fees to pay. These additional fees will be case dependent. You remain responsible for the timely payment of these additional fees.
   2. In some scenarios, we will invoice you for third party fees and in other scenarios you will need to pay the third party directly. Your caseworker will advise further as appropriate. Whether we invoice you or the third party invoices you direct, you become liable for the terms of any third party contract including any late payment penalty or cancellation fee.
   3. If you win your case, you may be able to claim back your legal costs from the other side if it is a Fast or Intermediate Track case (most over £10,000 in value). However, it is unlikely you will be able to reclaim your costs if the matter is a Small Claim (under £10,000).
   4. If you lose your case, and it is a Fast or Intermediate Track case, you are likely to become liable for the other side’s legal costs. Their legal costs will almost certainly be far higher than our fixed fees, as our fees our heavily subsidised. You must consider this cost consequence when deciding to continue any case in which you are involved. This will also apply to Applications and other types of ancillary hearings, even if they are in regard to a Small Claim.
5. GDPR
   1. By transferring your case to Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC, you are consenting for your details to be passed over from Lawgistics Limited. Lawgistics Litigation for the Motor Trade CIC holds a processing agreement with Lawgistics Limited who remain the Data Controller as per your Lawgistics Limited Membership terms.
   2. Your case will be live on our system for the duration of the Claim and then archived when the Claim is concluded.
   3. We are not obliged to return any documents to you or any fees.
6. Confidentiality
   1. Your information will be used to manage your case and will only be shared with relevant people or with organisations with whom we are legally obliged to disclose such information.
7. Complaints
   1. If at any point you become unhappy with the service we provide to you, then please raise the issue with your caseworker in the first instance. If it cannot be resolved, it should be escalated to Client Care at [email protected] who will review your complaint with our Head of Legal Services.
   2. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, then you can refer the complaint to be independently reviewed by the Legal Ombudsman. The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers.
   3. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
   4. Further details about how to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, including details of those eligible to bring a complaint and the relevant time limits, can be found on the Legal Ombudsman’s website (www.legalombudsman.org.uk) or by contacting:
      
      Telephone: 0300 555 0333 Minicom: 0300 555 1777
      Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
      
      
   5. If you have a complaint that is not related to the level of service, but about the professional integrity of our Head of Legal Services, Nona Bowkis, you can raise this with the Director Joel Combes at [email protected] and/or complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority who deal with complaints in regard to a breach of the SRA Principles. More details can be found here: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/
8. Jurisdiction
   1. These terms and conditions are governed by English law, and any dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
9. Acknowledgement
   1. You agree to accept these terms on receipt of our Client Engagement Letter which specifically directs you to read these. Please ask your caseworker if there is anything you wish to ask or clarify before giving authorisation that you wish to contract under these terms.