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Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Yes, this is something I deal with a lot in my professional life.
It sounds like you can prove that your contract was not with the Ltd entity and therefore you can pursue him as an individual.
First step I would do is to contact the liquidators who are dealing with the Ltd company and ask them to look into his affairs as a director running the company as you suspect everything may not be above board. It would be interesting to know if you are listed as a creditor on their list.
My most recent case was someone who claimed they were Ltd despite completing contracts clearly stating they were a sole trader. That ended up costing them dearly.
What are my chances of getting cash back from him?
If he holds directors and officers insurance it may pay even if he has no assets,although they may not pay the claim due to a deliberate act.
How do I find his insolvency details after the 6 months since it expired has passed? (they take people off the online register after 6 months, and I did not know he had been declared insolvent in time to check)
https://m.thegazette.co.uk/insolvency
Stop asking your family solicitor to help.
Get a commercial solicitor.
Be aware that if the debt is under £10,000 then your ability to recover legals fees is exceptionally limited - Sub £10K claims usually go into the Small Claims Track. It would be easy for the legal fees to exceed the debt. Unless of course you do it yourself as is really intended in the Small Claims Track.
If the matter is complex enough (and if there has been sufficient attempts to hide assets with possible breach of director duties etc etc) then under the general court management powers the court can stick it in the Multi-Track where if you win you can get a good portion of your costs back (not all - never all), BUT the flip side is that if you lose you will be ordered to pay the defendant's costs.
"Going behind the veil" of a Ltd company takes time and good investigations. That costs money.
Make sure you do a proper benefit analysis in regard to the debt and the costs you might pay in pursuing it.
The current mantra in costs recovery is now "Proportionality trumps necessity" - that means even if you absolutely needed to do a thing to win and there was no way to win without it, if that thing costs too much you won't get it back, or it will be reduced massively.
Basically don't blow £20,000 in costs pursuing a £10,000 debt. That £20,000 is likely to be halved when the costs are awarded and your net benefit of the process will be nil. Even if the defendant is only ordered to pay half your costs you still have to pay your lawyers all of it.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
It's quite worrying how often dabblers (like family lawyers trying to do a bit of commercial litigation - or indeed any lawyer acting outside their usual practice area) get it completely wrong in their advice to clients about the costs risks.
So always go to a specialist. Stay away from dabblers!
As a tenuous link to the main purpose of this forum - Dr Brian May is the subject of a rather "famous" costs case on proportionality... when he spend about £208,000.00 on a dispute that settled for only £25,000...
https://www.12kbw.co.uk/broadswords-rapiers-proportionality-light-may-v-wavell-group-limited/
Basically - BM spent £208,000 on a nuisance dispute with a neighbour. He won and it settled for £25,000
At a Costs Assessment (when every task done is reviewed) the total costs claim of £208,000 was reduced to about £99,000 based on what was absolutely necessary.
Then the Costs Judge thought £100K on a £25K dispute was still too much and slashed it to £35,000 (Yup = BM won £25,000 and was £173,000 down on costs)
It was appealed of course.
At the appeal the slashing down bit was partially reversed - and put back to £75K. He still owed his solicitors £208,000 and the defendant was only ordered to pay £75K towards it.
Adding the £25K damages to the costs = £100,000. Meaning that there was no monetary benefit to the winner (May) and in fact he was down £108K at the end.
OF COURSE, somethings are not about money alone. Sometimes you need to spend a million over something that has an immediate value of £8.50... because the decision itself protects your IP rights, or your company for the next 100 years etc etc.
Whether Mr May thought it was still worth it (Defendant would have had to pay their own lawyers too so maybe they would be more careful in the future?) in stopping the disruption to his home is something only he knows.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
Alll good stuff to know... but I guess a few £100k is just a 'round of drinks' if you live in Holland Park.
Everyone still wants value for money, especially on things they don't really want to buy but are forced into it by the actions of others.
It's not completely scaleable - there are somethings that cost even when the disputed sum is low.
So in an injury claim of about £30,000 where liability and monetary value are fully disputed the costs will exceed it and the courts won't really mind as long as it's not a stupid amount. You still need expert reports, maybe CT or MRI scans etc and as long as you have picked a commercially average provider then it's ok. But at the same time if 10 experts quote £1000 for a report and 1 quotes £10,000, you don't pick the £10K one unless you have very good reasons. You just won't recover the additional £9000. Same with the Court Fees - they are set by government at various stages of the process. The claimant has no choice but to pay them. So generally they are outside of the proportionality arguments. They aren't just a necessity - they are genuinely unavoidable.
As you can imagine it's a deep, complex and really quite dull subject!
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
Does it change anything if he committed fraud as part of this?
I had solid evidence that he did this.
If there is sufficient evidence then a trial would take more than 1 day and that usually means allocation to the multi track where you have the opportunity to gets a costs award if you win.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
The nature of commercial work means that CFA (Conditional Fee Agreement- the proper name for no win no fee) are often not offered as the risks are too high, and the unique nature of each case means there can’t be a book of similar cases (like rear end shunt road traffic) to spread the risk.
You can ask though. No harm in that.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd