Picture this..
You have closed down the office to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, or
You have headed off on a well-deserved break in January and given yourself a break from reading your mail.
While there is a general festive spirit and goodwill to others amongst some, you should be aware that there are some grinches about who will take advantage of your festive season distractions.
Each year I come across clients who have returned from their Christmas/New Year break only to find that someone has left them an unwanted Christmas present in the form of a Statement of Claim, a Statutory Demand, a default judgment or a claim such as a payment claim under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payments Act which only gives them a limited time to respond (of course the time to respond expired while they were on leave!).
Unfortunately these sorts of unwanted Christmas presents cannot be returned to sender or re-gifted to someone else.
To protect yourself or your business from these unwanted presents you can do the following:
• Have someone that you trust check your mailbox and read mail over the Christmas and January period. If you have a company you should also check the mail at your Registered Office to make sure that there are no unwanted Christmas presents.
• If unwanted Christmas presents arrive, call your lawyer for urgent advice.
• We reopen on 3 January and can assist you deal with the unwanted presents.
For further information, please contact the Commercial Litigation Team.
