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Post-Covid World: Debt Recovery (Webinar Event)

This 60 minute webinar will take place at 10am on Tuesday 26th April 2022.

The session will focus on tips to ensure that your invoices are paid and some steps you can take to protect yourself and to recover outstanding debts.

The main topics that we plan to cover are:

  • Impact of Covid-19
  • Debt collection checklist
  • Pre-Court procedures – What you can do
  • Going legal – what are your options
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SME debt is a ticking time bomb

Pat Haver

Pat Haver

Recent independent studies undertaken by the Legal Services Board and Xero convey a worrying and consistent theme that SME debt is a ticking time bomb.

UK SMEs are losing more than £40 Billion per year through disputes and have £131 Billion tied up in late payments. YouGov has reported that 82% of SMEs currently have outstanding balances with each firm owed an average £62,957.00.

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Supreme Court swaps old test for new one in professional negligence claims

Andrew Koffman

Manchester Building Society (MBS) successfully appealed to the Supreme Court in a claim for negligence against its ex-auditors Grant Thornton (GT), after losing in the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The facts of the case are quite unusual.  However the judgment is of wider importance since the court took a different approach to assessing loss arising from an adviser’s breach of duty, from the previous line of cases going back to the 1990s, and the decision should signal a change of direction.

 

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Business interruption claims and COVID-19: Has your claim been settled?

Andrew Koffman

January’s Supreme Court judgment in the FCA’s test case against insurers for COVID-19 business interruption insurance claims was a great relief to many SMEs, as we wrote at the time (see below)

Reports at the time of the judgment said that 370,000 businesses could be impacted by the test case – not all favourably although the judgment was undoubtedly good news for businesses overall.

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Disputing a Will

Andrew Koffman
Head of Litigation

When Diego Maradona passed away in November 2020, speculation was rife in the press as to whether he had a valid Will and, if he did, whether it provided for all of his children with some newspapers reporting he had fathered eight children whereas others had the figure as high as 11!

While the Maradona situation is thankfully not commonplace, sorting out the estate of a loved one when they die can be a daunting task. If they had a Will in place that should make things easier but what if the Will doesn’t make adequate provision for all of the dependants or if you are concerned that the Will has not been interpreted correctly?

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Business interruption claims and COVID-19: Good news for SMEs but what happens now?

Andrew Koffman

On Friday 15 January 2021 the Supreme Court delivered its eagerly awaited judgment in the test case between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and various insurers.  The FCA was acting on behalf of policyholder businesses disrupted by COVID-19.

To the relief of SMEs awaiting the decision, the court found heavily in favour of the policyholders.

It is estimated that 370,000 policyholders could be directly affected.

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Six Promotions at Bermans

Andrew Henderson

Andrew Henderson

Bermans, commercial law firm in Liverpool and Manchester, is delighted to announce that it has promoted 6 individuals to more senior roles at the firm.

Andrew Henderson (left) joined Bermans in 1985 and has developed an expertise in asset finance litigation.  He has been made a Partner and joins Alex Chapman, David Gledhill and Jonathan Berkson as partners in the specialist Asset Based Lending team that is ranked in the Legal 500 London Asset Finance Lending rankings.

He deals with matters such as fraud, freezing orders, title claims, delivery up claims, guarantee/indemnity claims, shortfalls and general debt recovery for a wide range of asset based lenders.

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Don’t Let Your Debtors Lock You Down! November 2020 Update

Andrew Koffman

10 tips for reviewing and implementing your credit control procedures: Revisited

The impact of COVID-19 on businesses continues to be severe, as recent statistics show.

In the UK as a whole the most recent ONS statistics show that nearly 30% of businesses, which have not closed permanently, continue to regard themselves as at moderate or severe risk of insolvency.

 

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