Caselaw on credit hire of vehicles following road traffic accidents continues to evolve. In the recent case of ALEXANDER GREENLEES v ALLIANZ INSURANCE PLC – http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2011CSOH173.html - the defender argued for the dismissal of the whole claim on the basis that the driver had not acted reasonably in failing to read and understand the credit hire agreement. This argument failed in the Outer House of the Court of Session and charges were recovered. The case is a dense read but gives good guidance on how the courts are approaching these claims – here to curtail the number of days hire claimed to what was reasonable in the circumstances and then to average out rates when looking at the applicable “spot rate”.

In today’s economic climate it is vital for SMEs to keep tight control over their payment terms. The Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has a series of very useful downloadable guides available to assist – http://www.creditmanagement.org.uk/bisguides.htm

The guides provide advice to small businesses on cashflow, agreement of payment terms and gives tips for best practice. They strongly caution to set out and agree payment terms in advance and in writing.

We are equipped to advise clients on these matters to help minimise debts becoming bad. Of course, if your debt has gone bad, we can deploy a variety of methods to assist in its recovery.

One of the quirks of litigation has the ability to recover interest at a rate quite often much higher than the official base rate. This is because the usual default rate is the “judicial rate”, which has been fixed for many years in both the Court of Session and Sheriff Courts at 8%.

In the recent Court of Session case of FARSTAD SUPPLY AS v ENVIROCO LIMITED reported at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2011CSOH153.html the judge noted the recent wide mismatch between the judicial rate and the base rate and made an adjustment for this by only allowing 4% interest from December 2008.

In damages cases this will be a useful authority for defenders to be aware of.

After a lot of hard work we have successfully transitioned the practice to our new “digital office” – Lawware’s cloud based practice management software LawCloud. Early impressions justify the investment in time and effort and we look forward to using this software to power Flexlaw’s continued expansion.

Flexlaw is in the final stage of its exciting transition to using Lawcloud to power it’s practice management system. Clients and contacts may notice a temporary break in email connectivity over the weekend from 2pm on Friday 8th July. Any contact with firm from this time until midday on Monday 11th July which is urgent should be made by telephone to the relevant fee-earner’s extension.

Our practice management software is at the heart of our firm. Last year we jumped to the cloud with our existing supplier. This summer, after an extensive review, we are moving to Lawware’s fantastic product Lawcloud.

This is a really exciting development for the firm and one which will form the basis for our continued expansion.

Follow Flexlaw founder solicitor Mark Harrison as he ventures into the brave new world of Twitter postings. I’ll attempt to keep these relevant to the law and opportunities for solicitors to join our practice. Currently, we are looking to recruit further experienced consultant solicitors to join our team, so if you have a core client following and fancy a move then get in touch

July’s edition of the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland features Flexlaw in its article on Scottish Virtual Firms – http://www.journalonline.co.uk/Magazine/55-7/1008398.aspx

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Flexlaw’s first new consultant solicitor with effect from 4th May: Claire O’Neill joins the firm’s Dispute Resolution department to cover Glasgow and the west. Claire, formerly of Miller Samuel, further strengthens the firm’s position in this area with cover now over the entire central belt.

This interesting article in the Times nicely summarises the benefits that the virtual law firm can bring to its legal consultants - http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/student/article7128423.ece