Council Dispute Case Study 

The councils barrister went through the claim and contended that the £1.8 million claim was hugely inflated, the loss of business issue was quickly dismissed as the council stated they had observed the three month notice period of termination of services, given the charity a chance to amend its provision prior to that and they failed to do so, leaving them to contract with who they choose to as they were entitled to do so.

It was clear that the claimant did however have a claim for incorrect rents being paid and were owed something, a number of schedules had to be examined to ascertain what the council actually owed, it transpired that £62,000 was owing, the council offered £80,000 to cover the amount owing, the claimants legal costs and a little for the distress element.

The claimant would not agree as they had this magical figure of £1.8 million in mind, and thought they at the very least should be paid half £900,000, the mediator and the claimants solicitor spent a considerable amount of time with the claimant getting across what they may possibly recover at trial and the fact that the £80,000 was actually perhaps as good as it would get, possibly a better deal then what they may end up getting after a trial. After some very hard reality testing and discussions with the council they agreed to settle for £90,000.