I am often approached by new and existing clients who have a range of tight deadlines and ‘emergency’ situations that they need help with. I and my clients are fortunate that I have a great team that is willing to put in the additional hours to ensure that we meet a client’s deadline. Be it reviewing some terms of a new contractual arrangement, completing the acquisition of a new business, or selling shares in a company, we frequently put in the additional hours necessary to ensure a client’s expectations are met. Any stress they may be suffering as a result of a tight deadline is kept to a minimum.

Protecting Clients from Stress

Whilst deadlines can often create an immediate, tangible level of stress, the work we undertake more serves to protect a client from becoming stressed in the first place. There have been various times when we have drafted contracts and terms and conditions for a client that have resulted in a better outcome than they had initially imagined and, in turn, significantly less stress.

An Example of How We Protect Clients’ Interests

An immediate example that springs to mind concerns a client we acted for in selling shares in their business. The client received an initial upfront payment for the shares and agreed to receive the remaining consideration over a period of time. A number of conditions as to the repayment of the deferred consideration were put in place, along with a charge over the shares in the company that had been sold. When the buyer failed to make one of the deferred payments, our client was concerned that they would never see the money they had expected to receive and would lose their company for a fraction of its value. We swiftly invoked the charge over shares in the company, giving our client back control of the company that had been sold and enabling them to re-sell the company to a new buyer, covering the deferred consideration that the original buyer had not paid them.

Preventing Financial Losses and Reducing Stress

An online retailer we act for came to us and expressed concerns about significant financial losses resulting from customers returning products with damaged packaging, labels, and occasionally the actual product. Our client believed they were required to issue full refunds to customers for all returned items. We advised the client that when we had prepared their terms and conditions, we included a provision that they were able to make a reasonable deduction from any refund for the cost of packaging and any damage that had been caused to the product. The client’s stress significantly reduced when they realised they would no longer keep losing significant amounts of money on return goods that had been sold online.

Protecting Clients from Unfounded Claims

We sold a company for a business owner, and some months after the sale, the buyer began making allegations of breaches of warranties that had been included within the business sale agreement. Notwithstanding that those allegations were disputed, the defence of such allegations would have likely taken significant time and incurred substantial costs. As part of preparing the business sale contract, we included provisions that, in order for the buyer to bring a claim for breach of warranty, any claim had to be in excess of a certain value. The buyer’s spurious claims did not surpass the claims threshold. Therefore, we were simply able to refute the claims as not only being unfounded but below the contractual threshold for a claim to be brought.

As evidenced by the examples above, our work is not just about managing stress when it arises but also about preventing it from occurring in the first place. If your contracts have not been reviewed for some time or you are about to enter new contractual relationships, get in touch to ensure that your interests will be adequately protected and prevent you from finding yourself in a stressful situation. I can be contacted on 0330 818 3166 or via email at tim.field@birkettlong.co.uk