Breach of Contract - Claiming for a reduced amount

[adder1]

I am in the process of preparing a County Court claim against a company which would be approximately £80,000 in total. However, I am concerned that the company in question will mess around continuously and drive-up fees intentionally.

I am thinking of submitting a claim for a reduced amount (say £5000 to £10000) to enable the case to be brought in small claims thereby reducing the exposure to fees.

I have been told that this is possible, but I would like to know how to phrase the claim correctly so it is clear that the amount claimed is an 'initial' or 'partial' amount and that if the claim is successful, the balance will then be claimed for in a separate court submission.

Any advise greatly appreciated.

[R0b]

Re: Breach of Contract - Claiming for a reduced amount

I am in the process of preparing a County Court claim against a company which would be approximately £80,000 in total. However, I am concerned that the company in question will mess around continuously and drive-up fees intentionally.

I am thinking of submitting a claim for a reduced amount (say £5000 to £10000) to enable the case to be brought in small claims thereby reducing the exposure to fees.

I have been told that this is possible, but I would like to know how to phrase the claim correctly so it is clear that the amount claimed is an 'initial' or 'partial' amount and that if the claim is successful, the balance will then be claimed for in a separate court submission.

Any advise greatly appreciated.

You can limit your claim but you cannot bring the same claim twice - this is what is known as Res Judicata i.e. the court will not hear a second claim on the same issues previously contested and its purpose is to bring finality.

So if you claim up to £10k to bring it within small claims, you can't recover the other £70k in a further application. If you attempted to do that, I would expect the company to issue an application to strike out the second claim and you could get landed with their legal fees.

[adder1]

Re: Breach of Contract - Claiming for a reduced amount

Thanks for your reply R0b.

Someone mentioned to me that if I was to state on the first claim that should it be successful, the full claim will be submitted - based on what you say, I can't do this then?

If I was to limit my claim to a particular time period (the dispute is regarding an interest payment) which matched the lower amount claimed for the time period submitted, could the larger amount then be claimed in a further application relating to a later timescale?

Ideally, I am just trying to submit a claim which limits my exposure. My feeling is that the company in question will not want the claim to reach court anyway because it is likely to open a can of worms for them with many other customers; as such, I feel that if I submit the smaller claim, they are likely to want to settle out of court, in which case I assume I can ask them to settle the full amount?

[R0b]

Re: Breach of Contract - Claiming for a reduced amount

I'm not sure how that would fare with the court because if the claim was successful you should have claimed the full amount in the first instance. As I said above, you cannot re-litigate on the same cause of action and the court will throw it out as an abuse of process. You can however, bring a claim against the same party but it must be for a different cause of action. If you re-issue a claim on the same facts and issues it is not allowed.

If I was to limit my claim to a particular time period (the dispute is regarding an interest payment) which matched the lower amount claimed for the time period submitted, could the larger amount then be claimed in a further application relating to a later timescale?

If you issued a claim for example, for £8,000, paid the court fees and then subsequently made an application to increase the compensation sought, that would amount to an abuse of process. Mainly for the reasons that you've paid a lower court fee than you should have, especially where you knew that the sum of compensation you were seeking is higher than you initially entered.

You've said that the payment relates to interest and if there is a good prospect of success, why not consider seeking proper legal advice who can maybe take your claim on a fixed fee basis or even a damages based agreement (they take a % of the compensation awarded) or even a no-win no-fee if that is possible. That way you might be able to minimise your exposure to any adverse costs but also with the added benefit of a solicitor on board who can also determine the merits of your case. We are not exactly talking about a small amount your claiming so I would expect there to be some interest from solicitors, even if they review your prospects you will know where you stand.

[adder1]

Many thanks for your comments R0B, I'll look to find someone suitable. I am cautious because we talked to a solicitor some time ago (completely different issue) to see if he was suitable for the dispute we had at that time....he turned out not to be but we received a large bill just for asking!