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Hello all,
I'm new here, but have had a good search through the various forums and elsewhere online, but have been unable to find much advice relating to instances such as this...
Unfortunately, the nature of this means that I can't be too specific here, but hopefully I can provide enough information for someone to give their advice.
About a year ago, a number of items of stock from my business were seized by a government authority. Their investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing (which there wasn't!), and they therefore concluded, obviously, that they weren't taking any action. Eventually (after several demands and quite a period of time), the stock was returned, having depreciated massively. Their actions also led to a less of business reputation, goodwill and so forth (long story!)
A full claim for the depreciation, loss of income, damage to reputation, etc will be large, time-consuming and costly to instigate (amount would be well above the small claims court limit).
So my question is this - can I begin proceedings in the small claims court for a specific amount (say £300) for just the depreciation on one item of stock (ignoring everything else)? Whether this case was won or lost, would it prejudice a future claim for the other losses? My thinking is that by submitting a small claim, the authority in question will either accept liability and pay the relatively small amount (which might be helpful evidence as an admission for a future, larger claim), or they will defend the amount (in which case I get to learn what their defence is likely to be). However, if by submitting this small claim, that will be seen as full and final settlement, then obviously I won't be able to go along with this plan.
I appreciate that is a bit of a long-winded post, but hopefully you can get the rough gist of the question!
Thanks
I'm new here, but have had a good search through the various forums and elsewhere online, but have been unable to find much advice relating to instances such as this...
Unfortunately, the nature of this means that I can't be too specific here, but hopefully I can provide enough information for someone to give their advice.
About a year ago, a number of items of stock from my business were seized by a government authority. Their investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing (which there wasn't!), and they therefore concluded, obviously, that they weren't taking any action. Eventually (after several demands and quite a period of time), the stock was returned, having depreciated massively. Their actions also led to a less of business reputation, goodwill and so forth (long story!)
A full claim for the depreciation, loss of income, damage to reputation, etc will be large, time-consuming and costly to instigate (amount would be well above the small claims court limit).
So my question is this - can I begin proceedings in the small claims court for a specific amount (say £300) for just the depreciation on one item of stock (ignoring everything else)? Whether this case was won or lost, would it prejudice a future claim for the other losses? My thinking is that by submitting a small claim, the authority in question will either accept liability and pay the relatively small amount (which might be helpful evidence as an admission for a future, larger claim), or they will defend the amount (in which case I get to learn what their defence is likely to be). However, if by submitting this small claim, that will be seen as full and final settlement, then obviously I won't be able to go along with this plan.
I appreciate that is a bit of a long-winded post, but hopefully you can get the rough gist of the question!
Thanks
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