FAQ

I need legal advice. How can I contact you?

For a quotation for advice about a legal matter concerning land, send me an email outlining the background and attaching any key documents. You don’t need to give all the details in this initial email, just a summary. I will let you know if I need more information before a quote can be given.

Should I seek legal advice now or should I wait?

If you have received a notification that legal proceedings have been started in a court or other tribunal (or a notification from the Land Registry that someone has made an application which might affect your land) then you should seek legal advice without delay. Often there will be quite a limited time period for you to respond and your response may limit the legal arguments you are subsequently allowed to put forward when resisting the claim, so do not delay seeking legal advice.

Similarly if you have received a letter threatening to start legal proceedings, you should seek immediate legal advice. 

If the situation is that legal proceedings have not been threatened or started, the best course is that, If you are in any doubt, you should seek legal advice from a barrister now. The law, in many cases, imposes time limits which mean that if you have a legal claim which is otherwise valid, you may lose your rights if you do not start proceedings, make a Land Registry application, send a notice to another party, or take some other action, by a certain deadline. 

Even if you do not lose your rights completely, sometimes delay can mean that a court or other tribunal is less willing to exercise its discretion (where a remedy is discretionary) in your favour. Or delay may cause practical problems in, for example, tracing witnesses, or obtaining documents held by other people or organisations which may, for example, be routinely destroyed after a certain period of time. It is true that in some other cases the best advice may be, on the contrary, to let sleeping dogs lie as in certain circumstances allowing a situation to continue over a period of time can strengthen your legal case, but even if that is so you will still need advice about what kind of evidence to collect, from time to time, for future use.

Some people, desiring to save costs, think "I will try this first, then seek legal advice" but this can be a dangerous strategy. It it best to have at least some initial advice, from a barrister who has seen the site, about the wisdom of the course of action you are considering.        

What parts of the country do you cover? 

I travel widely throughout England and Wales (not Scotland or Northern Ireland where the law is different) as, in order to give the best advice, it is essential to view the land concerned.

What fees do you charge?

The types of work which barristers do fall into three broad categories:-

1. Written Opinion – a barrister’s assessment of how the law applies to a given situation and the likelihood of winning any litigation. If this is the first written Opinion then invariably it will be preceded by a conference/site visit if land and/or buildings are involved.  

2. Drafting a legal document required in litigation such as an Application or a Statement of Case, or a "letter before action". 

3. Representing you at a hearing at a court or other tribunal.

Fixed Fees for each item of work

The fee which I quote for each piece of work which you ask me to carry out will normally be a fixed fee (rather than an hourly charge) - e.g.

1. A fixed fee for a site visit/conference followed by a written Opinion. 

2. A fixed fee for drafting a document such an Application to the Land Registry, an Application to the Upper Tribunal, an Application to the High Court for an Injunction, a statement of case, or perhaps a further written Opinion (e.g. if there have been developments since the last written Opinion, or if further relevant historical documents have come to light).  

3. A fixed fee for representation on a particular day at a tribunal hearing.

I quote a fixed fee for each item taking into account how much work I expect will be involved in that item based on the then current situation and the information I then have. So, for example, if I have finished writing an Opinion and you ask me to quote for drafting an Application, I take account, when quoting for that work, of the information I have gathered about the case from the previous work of providing an Opinion. If you ask me to quote for drafting a Statement of Case I take account of the document from the other side, which the Statement of Case will be a reply to, in determining how much work will be involved in drafting the Statement of Case and, therefore, the fixed fee to quote. This means that I cannot, at the outset, quote an overall fixed fee for the entirety of the work which might end up being required over the lifetime of your whole case - I only quote for each piece of work at the time. But although I cannot quote, at the outset, for all of the barrister work which may eventually be needed, I may be able to give you a "ballpark" figure. It is difficult to give even a "ballpark" figure before I have done the work of providing an initial Opinion - not least because the exact route which the case is likely to take (which tribunal and/or what type of claim or application) needs to be assessed - but in most cases it is possible to provide a "ballpark" figure once an initial written Opinion has been provided. 

No charge for travel for site visit 

For the areas of law I practise in, I consider that an initial site visit is necessary in order to be sure of giving the best advice. So I make it a rule never to advise before seeing the site. I don't make any extra charge for a site visit, wherever it is in England or Wales  -  I can work whilst travelling so it is not lost time and I do not charge for travelling expenses.

Can you represent me at a hearing? 

I represent clients at hearings in those specialist tribunals which are concerned with freehold land such as the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber – Land Registration Division) and the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and in the County Court and High Court (Business and Property Division) as well as the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) and the UK Supreme Court. If I am available on the date of your hearing I would normally be able to represent you given sufficient notice and providing I have advised you about your case in the past. 

If I have not advised you about the case in the past then I would consider with an open mind whether I could help, but it will not always be feasible. 

Is there anything else I need to know?

Like all barristers I am a self-employed individual and how quickly I may be able to carry out any work (such as legal advice or legal drafting) which you ask me to provide a quotation for, or whether I am able to represent you at a particular tribunal hearing on a particular day (if you are seeking a quotation for that) will  depend on my other commitments at the time you ask me for the quotation. If the matter is urgent, please state this when asking for a quotation. 

Like every barrister, I am regulated by the Bar Standards Board and, in addition to the information above about e.g. what kind of work I do, how I typically charge, and how to obtain a quotation, I am required to give you the following additional links and information.

BSB register of barristers

Complaints Procedure

My Terms