greed and pride come before a fall
recently i was involved in negotiating a dispute. the other side were originally seeking £4,000,000 and we were offering them zero, on the basis that they had suffered no loss. in actual fact, our surveyor had advised we should expect to pay in the region of £2,000,000.

all-parties meeting last month, and we offered £1,500,000 in full and final settlement. they asked for £2,000,000. we held firm. they dropped to £1,950,000. repeat ad nauseum over a very long and tedious day, at the end of which we were £50,000 apart. so they could have walked away with £1,700,000. the guy rang his boss to ask for his permission to settle, as he thought it was a good deal, and his boss refused. repeatedly.

two months later, his boss has only just realised my client, a huge plc, has much deeper pockets (and a much better solicitor, clearly, haha) and they are out of cash. he should have listened to his gimp. we have settled it this week for £500,000. my client is coming in his pants with glee. so that shite manager has cost his company a cool £1,200,000 by failing to see sense over £50k. i am glad he is not my boss.

yes i realise this is dull, and no i am not going to apologise, it took up 2 minutes of your life, it takes up all of mine, have some sympathy!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 18:02, 11 replies)

You have my sympathy!
And a clicky thing...
(CdrVimes, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 18:04, closed)

I liked this
Not because it's an entertaining answer but because I've seen exact circumstances like this. I work in the building sector so rather than solicitors it's just negotiation on tenders / extra works / etc. Never quite got to this scale of money, but close...
...which industry was this dispute in out of interest?
(Stephen Sondheim ..-. ..- -.- . -.- -.-- . .- ...., Thu 10 Jun 2010, 18:11, closed)

i do contentious property
this was a terminal dilaps claim.

are you implying that it wasn't entertaining, good sir?!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 18:13, closed)

Yay for big companies stomping on smaller companies
who were asking for 250k less than your own guy reckoned was fair! The nerve of some people...
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 18:27, closed)

you would be right in some circumstances
not in this one. can't say too much because (i) you would die of boredom and (ii) it is confidential, but in brief, we had a really strong word-up that they were only going to knock the property down, so why should they have pocketed anything for carrying out repairs they were never going to do?

these guys were complete tools whilst they were my client's landlord, greedy money grabbing tools. they then ran out of money because they bought shit loads of properties at the peak of the market in 2006/7 and then it crashed, and they had been so arrogant with their tenants that none of them would give them any sort of a break!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 18:37, closed)

Landlords?
I formally retract any hint of sympathy I may previously have expressed.

Did they own Blackacre?
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 18:41, closed)

they did
but then they merged the title with whiteacre and granted an overriding lease of redacre............ you clearly know the painful script!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 19:00, closed)

I understand
nothing of this, but ... good job.
(barrycounty, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 20:32, closed)

"my client, a huge plc, has much deeper pockets...and they are out of cash."

Law fucking stinks doesn't it?
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Thu 10 Jun 2010, 20:50, closed)

Yes.
They ended up paying £500,000 even though the plaintiff had suffered no loss, plus having to pay all sorts of legal fees.
(Vlad the Inhaler forgot his password, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:47, closed)

You get paid for it and I don't.
But I could have chosen not to read it, so i guess we're even
(Vlad the Inhaler forgot his password, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:46, closed)