Site Visits in land disputes

Why it is important to view land

I always make a site visit because I can't offer definitive advice, which the client will be relying on, without first seeing the land concerned.

Some lawyers will not make a site visit - at least not initially - but rather ask the client to come to their office and describe the situation, and then write a letter to the person the client is in dispute with. Such lawyers reason that at this initial stage they are not looking for a full understanding of the situation as the law would view it but just looking for a plausible argument which can be used in correspondence with a view to reaching some kind of resolution. If a resolution can be reached with one or two letters then that might turn out to be less expensive way of handling the situation.

But cost is not necessarily everything. If costs are saved by the plausible argument approach described above, the client, having agreed a legally binding settlement, may be forever thinking “I wonder if I did the right thing. Have I given up a valuable legal right unnecessarily?” Of course “buyer’s remorse” is a possibility with any settlement but if the client has first had a site visit and a full written Opinion from a barrister, on what their legal rights are, and how strong their case is, and the settlement has been agreed in the light of that knowledge, they may feel better able to live with the outcome. 

In any event, often the plausible argument approach does not immediately result in a settlement, what then happens is that a series of letters are exchanged over many months, and it may be that ultimately no resolution is reached. At this point the lawyer will either themselves make a site visit and obtain more information, or else engage a specialist barrister who will make a site visit and advise on the full legal position and the options for progressing the matter. So if matters turn out like this, not carrying out a site visit to begin with will have turned out to be a false economy.