My Best Day As A Litigation Specialist

My best day as a litigation solicitor was the last day of a four-day trial, which was the culmination of a dispute that had gone on for nearly two years.

My client has bought a property out in the country, which he hoped would be his dream home. It consisted of two cottages and his plan was to completely redevelop the building into one home.

He quickly ran into trouble when someone from the village claimed that he had inherited one of the two cottages from his uncle. My client instructed local solicitors and fought the matter in a case that itself lasted two years and was decided by the Lands Tribunal. My client lost on all points and a costs order was made against him.

My client contacted me because his new unwanted neighbour was carrying out building works that were causing damage to his remaining half of the property. The neighbour also had a charge over my client’s home relating to the money he owed him for the failed Lands Tribunal case. The neighbour was using bailiffs (High Court Enforcement Officers) to intimidate my client by threatening to strip his half of the property of all possessions.

The neighbour also raised a boundary dispute, claiming that my client had illegally appropriated the one chimney between the two cottages. If the neighbour succeeded on this case, it would mean that the remainder of the property my client owed would be uninhabitable.

Over the course of the two years that we were instructed we worked with the client to achieve the following: We sued my client’s previous solicitor in a professional negligence action. The unfortunate fact was that the neighbour’s claim to one of the two cottages was a valid one. My client’s solicitors should have told him that from the beginning. From their file it looked like they didn’t actually read the papers until a month before the final hearing. This claim was settled at a level that allowed my client to repay the debt for costs owed to the neighbour and to pay off a debt of outstanding unpaid fees to the solicitor.

As to the neighbour’s building works, we threatened him with an injunction and he stopped the works. We asked him to provide a scheme of works to show that the work he intended would not cause damage to our property. After three different court orders, two days before the trial and some twenty-two months since we first contacted him, he came up with a schedule of works that would allow him to develop his property without causing damage to our client’s cottage.

We won damages as compensation for the damage already caused.
The neighbour decided to take the boundary dispute to trial. He had set up an elaborate argument including an officer from the local council to lie on his behalf. During the trial the Council officer’s testimony was completely undermined with the trial Judge ruling that he had abused the power of his position.

On the final day of trial, the neighbour originally claimed to be too ill to be able to give evidence, but after lunch changed his mind. Under questioning it became clear that his evidence did not stand up to scrutiny. Although we had to wait for the Judge’s written Judgment, it was clear that we had won the case and my client would be able to keep his home, free of earlier debts, entirely intact and protected from future damage. My client was completely going after choosing to keep going with the dispute despite personal intimidation and a deliberate attempt to take his home from him based on lies.

As expected the Judgment did go in our favour and we were awarded our costs.
Yes, we did get drunk on the train home from the trial.