Generally courts are places you want to avoid. But if you’ve never been in a courtroom, I recommend you go and sit quietly at the back of a Magistrates’ Court. They will generally allow the public in and you can watch what goes on. Even when you’re viewing proceedings as a member of the public, courts are pretty scary places – when you’re involved in the case, they can be even more so.
But, being in business means you’re going to get sued (or get threatened with a lawsuit) every once in a while, and it’s quite useful to be comfortable about it – even start it.
No one really wants to go to court (mainly because of time, cost and scariness) and that’s why a significant number of cases are settled out-of-court. But if you are the recipient of an out-of-court settlement you may not be getting the best result.
Surprisingly enough, magistrates and judges are people too, with families and mortgages, businesses and pressures, and they will listen carefully and offer a fair judgement. You can use the threat of a courtroom encounter to your advantage.
A simple example – let’s say you hire a van for the weekend to move some furniture to your new office. It’s a brand new vehicle delivered to your door at the commencement of your rental, and collected at the end. Like any savvy renter you take pictures of the vehicle when it’s delivered and photos prior to it being collected. But then, days later the rental company emails you with photos of all the damage you’ve caused, with a claim for £2,000. You say it wasn’t you and they insist it was. You say you have photos and they say they want their money. Then you say that if they want to pursue this you’d like them to take you to court, because you can prove it wasn’t you and that’s the only way this is going to get settled. A pretty large proportion of claimants will run for the hills at that point.
Asking to be taken to court is unusual, but it immediately says you’re confident of appearing in front of a judge and confident you’ll win the case. And it makes people think twice. Even if you’re bluffing it can get you out of a sticky situation.
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