General Disputes

Disputes occur as part of everyday life. However, sometimes they can not be resolved without legal assistance, or without first determining what your legal position is and what your legal rights are.

Clark Willis has an expert litigation team who can provide advice on such matters for both individuals and businesses.

In some cases Clark Willis may be prepared to offer an initial free 30 minutes consultation. In others a fixed fee assessment, providing advice on your legal position and the merits of any potential future action.

Should legal action be required our litigation team have an excellent record of both defending and pursuing litigation actions in the civil court, tribunal, mediation and arbitration hearings.

Clark Willis ensure that our clients are kept up to date, fully informed and advised throughout the process.

Our litigation team has experience in a variety of disputes including:

    Will / Probate disputes
    Building and construction disputes
    Boundary and Neighbour disputes
    Professional negligence
    Partnership/business and company disputes
    Insurance contracts
    Consumer and general contract disputes
    Injunctions
    Nuisance cases
    Debt matters
    Small Claims Court disputes on a fixed fee basis


If you have a dispute upon which you like legal advice, please contact the litigation team on telephone 01325 28 11 11 or email enquiries@clarkwillis.co.uk

Paying your Legal Fees

We understand that clients are worried about legal costs. We offer a variety of funding options that are flexible and structured to suit your needs. If you are contemplating beginning a legal action, our team will discuss with you the best methods of funding for your case and aim to tailor a funding arrangement for you.

We can offer:

    ‘No Win No Fee’ agreements
    Fixed & staged fees
    Legal expenses insurance
    Legal aid/public funding



Small Claims Court Cases – Fixed Fee

If you are involved in a dispute for a sum of money of not more than £5,000 then your case will be allocated to by the court to what is known as the small claims track.  The advantage of having a claim on this track is that it takes less time to get to a final hearing than it does with a larger claim, and it is rare for a court to Order the losing party to pay their opponent's legal costs.

Clark Willis offer a staged fixed fee payment service for small claims track cases. This allows you to effectively budget for your legal costs. You can choose to use us for the beginning, the preparation or the final hearing or in fact the whole lot if you wish.

You will be informed at the outset exactly how much your court action will cost. For more information about our fixed fee small claims service or to see if we can assist you in your small claims matter please contact our litigation team on 01325 74 56 96 or email to enquiries@clarkwillis.co.uk.


Will & Probate Disputes

There are a number of typical situations which give rise to a legal course of action concerning the Will or probate which include:

A person dies leaving a Will which excludes you: you may be able to bring a case to show that you ought to receive something from their estate. These are known as Inheritance Provision Act Claims.

If the Will appears to have been drafted incorrectly either because it does not follow the instructions of the deceased or because it does not make sense or the Will was not completed/executed correctly, there may be a claim against the professional adviser/Will drafter.

Someone is trying to use a Will which is not a legally valid Will either because:

1.) The writer was being influenced or coerced by another.

2.) The writer did not have mental capacity to write the Will.

3.) There is another Will which has been at a later date than the Will being proved.

4.) There is evidence that there is a Will or another valid Will. However someone has deliberately destroyed it.

Professional Negligence

Professional negligence claims are claims against professional people which include claims against solicitors, accountants, architects, surveyors and financial advisors.

If you believe that you have been given incorrect legal advice, or provided with an unprofessional and negligent service, resulting in loss to yourself then you may be able to bring a claim for compensation. The compensation is to place you in the same position that you would have been in if there had been no such negligence.

Contract Disputes

Contracts are made everyday between people and businesses. They do not have to be written to be enforceable. Most day to day contracts are simply verbal, and others are simply established as a result of habit and through a course of dealing.  Although this makes the exact terms of the contract more difficult to prove it does not make them any less legally enforceable.

Other contracts are entered into on unequal terms. You may be asked to sign to say you accept the terms of conditions of another’s business, or you may, without even knowing it have accepted the terms of a business.  If you were not in a position to negotiate the terms of the contract that governs your course of dealings with another then you may be covered by the Unfair Contract Terms Act which means some of the onerous terms agreed could be unenforceable.

Other contracts are of course negotiated and considered carefully before being agreed often in the course of business relationships. Disputes can arise as to interpretation of these contracts, especially when important elements of a contract can be missing, or when both sides have their own predetermined terms and conditions of business which they insist should be enforceable.