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Hello,
I have a small claims court hearing (UK) in June and just wanted to run something past the legal people here.
I am a self employed Geotechnical Design Engineer (Civil Engineering - Foundations) who ceased trading with my Client due to a number of reasons. I issued the three outstanding invoices and chased for payment a number of times. Eventually they replied with a long e-mail indicating what they could pay and what they were contesting. (Basically they were saying that payment would be on a paid when paid basis, something that I have never agreed or signed up to).
I understand that my rights (including the right to be paid) are covered under English Common Law even though there is no formally agreed contract between us. Provided I provide an invoice in the correct format with the correct information displayed I am covered by the principals of Common Law. My invoices state that payment was due after 15 calendar days from the date of issue.
I have seen 30 calendar days mentioned and just want to have confirmation as to what the correct time period is. The queries that were raised arrived well after 30 calendar days had passed so I am covered but as I propose to quote this in court I want to be 100% correct.
At the court hearing I propose to state that the queries were raised after the minimum number of days that they had to respond had passed, therefore the defendant has accepted the contents of the invoices as being correct by default. Can anyone see a problem with this? To me this is too simple, but if true the hearing may last less than 10 minutes as the other party cannot contest this. (I have submitted copies of all the e-mail correspondence to the court and the other party).
There are other issues (one of their clients who I did much work for went into liquidation owing them a lot of money hence the paid when/if paid stance) but I already have this covered from a legal point of view. If I can nail my claim on the fact that the comments on my invoices were received too late and therefore by default are correct and must be paid, these other issues need not be raised.
Any comments / thoughts / experiences regarding similar issues much welcomed.
Regards,
Bram.
I have a small claims court hearing (UK) in June and just wanted to run something past the legal people here.
I am a self employed Geotechnical Design Engineer (Civil Engineering - Foundations) who ceased trading with my Client due to a number of reasons. I issued the three outstanding invoices and chased for payment a number of times. Eventually they replied with a long e-mail indicating what they could pay and what they were contesting. (Basically they were saying that payment would be on a paid when paid basis, something that I have never agreed or signed up to).
I understand that my rights (including the right to be paid) are covered under English Common Law even though there is no formally agreed contract between us. Provided I provide an invoice in the correct format with the correct information displayed I am covered by the principals of Common Law. My invoices state that payment was due after 15 calendar days from the date of issue.
I have seen 30 calendar days mentioned and just want to have confirmation as to what the correct time period is. The queries that were raised arrived well after 30 calendar days had passed so I am covered but as I propose to quote this in court I want to be 100% correct.
At the court hearing I propose to state that the queries were raised after the minimum number of days that they had to respond had passed, therefore the defendant has accepted the contents of the invoices as being correct by default. Can anyone see a problem with this? To me this is too simple, but if true the hearing may last less than 10 minutes as the other party cannot contest this. (I have submitted copies of all the e-mail correspondence to the court and the other party).
There are other issues (one of their clients who I did much work for went into liquidation owing them a lot of money hence the paid when/if paid stance) but I already have this covered from a legal point of view. If I can nail my claim on the fact that the comments on my invoices were received too late and therefore by default are correct and must be paid, these other issues need not be raised.
Any comments / thoughts / experiences regarding similar issues much welcomed.
Regards,
Bram.
