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SJP Law Solicitors in Hull and East Yorkshire

Call us on 01482 324591
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Complete Family Business support

We provide advice and guidance across a variety of areas:

  • Corporate and Commercial legal advice
  • Wills and Succession planning
  • Employment Law
  • Business restructuring and strategy
  • Property and estate management
  • Wealth preservation
  • Tax structuring
  • Shareholder and constitutional governance
  • Family Law
  • Philanthropy
  • Dispute resolution

Our Family business team are highly experienced in advising family businesses in East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and across the UK. We are proud of the long term relationships we have built with clients in the agricultural and commercial sectors, where we have successfully supported families for generations.

We provide first class legal support and guidance to businesses at every stage, from start-ups to established businesses which have been running for multiple generations.

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We will explain everything to you in plain English, helping you to understand complex legal processes and jargon.

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Pricing Information and Processes

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Current hourly rate as at May 2023:

A.         Directors, Associate Directors and Consultants - £330 plus VAT

Senior Solicitors, Senior Legal Executives and other members of relevant professional bodies with 8 years’ or more experience after qualification - £275 plus VAT

B.         Solicitors, Legal Executives and members of relevant professional bodies with 4 or more but less than 8 years’ experience after qualification and fee earners with equivalent experience - £230 plus VAT

C.        Other Solicitors, Legal Executives and fee earners of equivalent experience not falling within A or B above - £190 plus VAT

D.        Trainee Solicitors, Paralegals and fee earners of equivalent experience not falling within A-C inclusive above - £150 plus VAT

Debt Recovery for Businesses up to £100,000

We dot not have a commercial litigation team as our philosophy is that our family business clients should explore other solutions wherever possible to avoid litigation.  This is because litigation can be expensive and can impact significantly on your time which is usually better spent on your own business than on a time consuming Court dispute.

We help our family business owners implement effective and robust credit control procedures and believe that prevention is always better than cure when it comes to bad debts.

However, on occasions we do help our clients on the following basis:

Firstly we may send a solicitors letter with a demand for payment within a short period of time.  Our costs for that range between £150 - £250 plus VAT.

If that does not secure payment, then we may be asked to issue a formal statutory demand for payment within a slightly longer period of time. Our costs for that are £400 plus VAT. In addition, we recommend the demand is served by a specialist process server and they usually charge £100 plus VAT.

If having taken these initial steps the debt is still outstanding we will discuss with you further options and in particular the risks and benefits . Typically the most common choices our family business owner clients make are either:

  • Write off the debt and focus their time, energy and business resources on the core business activities.
  • Pursue the debt through the Courts.  This is not something that we handle but we will arrange for an appropriate specialist at another firm to meet you and support you through that process.

Employment Tribunal work - Defendant

We encourage our family business clients to take positive and proactive steps to avoid employment disputes by having appropriate contracts of employment in place and up to date and comprehensive staff handbooks.  We also regularly guide our clients through tricky or sensitive issues with their employees with the aim of maintaining a motivated and positive workforce.

When our clients are not able to manage employee concerns or grievances and the outcome is a formal tribunal claim from the employee then we remain supportive and help with the next stage.  We always flag up the possibility that our client may have legal expenses insurance in place to cover such a claim and if they do, it may well be that the insurer and a panel firm on behalf of the insurer will handle things from that point.  We are always on hand and many clients ask us to maintain a watching brief in the background because of the historical knowledge we have about the client and their business from our long association working together.

Over the last 5 years we can count on one hand the number of times our clients have had to defend a tribunal claim.  However in those cases we have worked successfully to ensure any damages and costs are kept to a minimum.

When we are asked to help defend a claim the scope of work is likely to include the following:

  1. review the information received from the Employment Tribunal
  2. arrange for a specialist barrister to review the claim form (ET1) and relevant evidence and advise on the best way forward 
  3. collate any further evidence required or advised by the specialist barrister
  4. meet with the owners and any relevant managers of the business to understand the factual events and prepare witness statements
  5. draft formal witness statements
  6. instruct the specialist barrister and arrange for a defence form (ET3) to be drafted
  7. arrange for a suitable representative to attend the Case Management Hearing
  8. provide guidance on the next steps and update at every stage up to and including a final hearing if earlier settlement cannot be achieved

Our costs vary depending on the particular circumstances. Our costs are likely to range between £10,000 plus VAT and £30,000 plus VAT based on our previous experience.  

A huge thank you for being you, and all that you have done to support us this year. We could not have done it without you….!

It has not been an easy year, but sharing the journey with people like you, make it possible - and even an adventure!

Your straight talking, tactical advice, and of course your wonderful sense of humour have seen us through brilliantly!

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Trusted. Independent. Successful. Helpful. Solicitors.
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