SDK Law

04/12/2019

Sadly, due to a bit of bad judgment on my part SDK Law has closed. Thank you to everyone for your support. It was a great time in my life and I am devastated to lose it.

I hope to be back doing something similar soon.

22/09/2018

A sad week just past. The great Louis Blom-Cooper died.
I recommend reading his Times obituary.

21/02/2018

Look out for our updated website coming soon!

28/06/2015

This week Michael Gove announced that "rich lawyers" have to do more pro bono work for which read "work for nothing" to cover the huge disparity between the rich and poor in access to justice....because of his party. I don't see Tesco being asked to let people off with their food bills because their benefits won't cover such extravagance.

26/01/2015

Proposals for a huge rise in court fees seem likely to be approved. The fees are likely to be prohibitively high and enough to deny many potential litigants access to justice. I will post some links later and may even add to the blog.

02/11/2012

Today, I was lucky enough to have a large amount of money in from last month's bills. I was really pleased and grateful to the people who were good enough to pay very quickly. For once, I paid last quarter's VAT all in one go. Now I cannot afford to go out tonight.

28/07/2012

New blog entry on sdk-law.co.uk concerning reuse of company names after a liquidation. This is an under reported issue despite the fact that the Insolvency Service regularly sends out warnings where phoenix companies are suspected. See http://www.sdk-law.co.uk/blog/company-names

In these hard economic times, the number of company liquidations seems to be increasing. Even if a company is capable of being saved there may be good, legitimate reasons to allow it to be wound up but what problems might this cause for the directors?

11/05/2012

Jackson's report suggests that costs which are disproportionate do not become proportionate just because they are necessary. What does that mean? Is it a defence for me to conduct a case negligently by not having evidence that the judge needs just because getting that evidence is expensive? What happens if a Defendant is obstructive and I have to do a lot of work to overcome the problem? Does that make the costs of my work disproportionate?

The same goes for the forthcoming fixed costs regime in fast track claims. It encourages corner cutting. The client is not going to be happy about the solicitor doing what is necessary to win the case if he cannot get the costs of doing it back from the losing opponent so I don't do it, get criticised by the trial judge and get sued for negligence if we lose.

The alternative is to tell people with meritorious cases not to run them however important the amount in question might be.

This does not look like a way to increase access to justice. Let's face it. If the other side wants to mess about it must be prepared to risk the costs that it has to pay. That, my dear Lord Justice Jackson, is the controlling mechanism which either makes people co-operate or decide to take the risk.

05/04/2012

Just for information thre is a new blog post on my website at www.sdk-law.co.uk. It seems that a District Judge in Birmingham shares my view on what will happen to the Court system if people cannot afford to instruct lawyers to handle their cases.

SDK Law are a firm of litigation solicitors providing help and advice for company administration, dispute resolution and insolvency advice.