Ignorance isn't always bliss- and it can be expensive!
People often talk about ostriches hiding their heads in the sand.
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I’ve had the benefit of touring an ostrich farm and I didn’t see any of them with their heads down, but they aren’t very intelligent creatures.?? When I went to feed them, they couldn’t tell where the food stopped and my hand started!
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My clients, on the other hand, are mostly very intelligent people, but they do, still hide their heads in the sand from time to time.
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Particularly in litigation.
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It’s quite common for us to go months (occasionally even years) without hearing anything from the court, and my client may be happy to let the case go to sleep and hope that it’s been forgotten about and/or that the other side are equally happy to do nothing.
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However, as with all things in life, there are risks.? There is always the risk that the court has done something (such as send you a notification of a hearing) and it’s got lost in the post.? Even things being sent by email can be deleted in error by the accidental flick of a finger on a sensitive I phone screen.
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So one option is to chase the court regularly, and keep notes of those chasing calls, so that if anything has gone wrong you can prove you took reasonable steps to be pro active.
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The other is to sit back and do nothing, and wait to see what happens.
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The downside of the first option is that you could wake up a case that would otherwise have gone to sleep.
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The downside of the second option is that if you have missed something, the court can take your lack of action into account when making a final decision.
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In a recent case that we have been involved in, there was a period of some 18 months when our client heard nothing from the court or the other side.? However, it now transpires that there was a hearing, which he maintains he didn’t receive any notification of.? The hearing went ahead without him, judgement was entered against him, and he only became aware when the bailiffs were instructed.?
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We have successfully had the judgment set aside, because the Judge accepted on balance that client didn’t know about the hearing and had he known, he was likely to have attended.? Nevertheless, the client has been ordered to pay the other side’s costs of the hearing, because he accepts that he took no steps to follow up with any party and although (as Defendant) there was more obligation on the Claimant to be pro active than on our client, that doesn’t mean he had no obligation at all.
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Kleyman & Co Solicitors.? The full service law firm.? ?Faster than ostriches – on legal matters at least!
Pro-human. Calling out the crap. Writer. On a Mission. "Better to live one day as a Lion than a thousand years as a sheep." 'Non Ducor Duco.' Unapologetically me.
1 年Litigation should carry a public health warning like cigarette packets like this 'litigation kills.' It takes yonks. Years.. of potential slooow torture. I'm convinced it's to separate the flaky from the truly tough and committed, as at times it's so protracted and arduous it makes you feel you want to give up. You've got to be a dedicated long distance runner to get through it, pacing yourself whilst working closely with your legal team by being a proactive partner whilst chasing things up and taking your own copious notes on what's going on, who said what and when and reading everything in meticulous detail. I e. Not simply letting your legal team get on with it.