Help urgently needed LEGAL

trudy1980

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

To cut a long story short I resigned on the 2nd January (in person on a bank holiday) my boss did not take the news well as I was performing well and bringing the company a lot of business. I was placed on garden leave for a week and was told I did not need to work my notice and employment ceased on the 6th.

During this period I was accused of a lot of things over email last week I received a letter from a lawyer listing a lot of untrue statements regarding me poaching clients etc... I responded to the lawyers letter as requested and I corrected the statement with my version of accounts and stated that I had evidence of my responses. The Lawyers letter was suggesting that the case may be taken to the high court depending g on my responses. 

I have just received an email from my previous employer with the lawyer cc'd in he is asking for copies off all my evidence by next Tuesday.

What should I do???

Should I send evidence as requested?

Should I acknowledge the email stating that the evidence is confidential (some of it is such as invoices from my employer before him) but it is available if the case goes to court.

Or should I ignore him?

He still owes me money due next Tuesday and I want to avoid court if possible. 

Any advice would be amazing x

elsien

He’s fishing for information from the sound of it. A solicitor saying it may go to High Court may mean that they’re just trying to scare you or it’s something that your employer might consider. Either way I wouldn’t be handing over evidence on the solicitors letter and nothing else.

theoretica

To get anywhere in court your employer would need to be able to prove that you were doing things that were illegal or against your contract - can they? If you haven't done anything they would have a hard time.  I don't need to prove I wasn't shoplifting yesterday...

Are you a member of a union? 

Marcon

trudy1980 said:

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

To cut a long story short I resigned on the 2nd January (in person on a bank holiday) my boss did not take the news well as I was performing well and bringing the company a lot of business. I was placed on garden leave for a week and was told I did not need to work my notice and employment ceased on the 6th.

During this period I was accused of a lot of things over email last week I received a letter from a lawyer listing a lot of untrue statements regarding me poaching clients etc... I responded to the lawyers letter as requested and I corrected the statement with my version of accounts and stated that I had evidence of my responses. The Lawyers letter was suggesting that the case may be taken to the high court depending g on my responses. 

I have just received an email from my previous employer with the lawyer cc'd in he is asking for copies off all my evidence by next Tuesday.

What should I do???

Should I send evidence as requested?

Should I acknowledge the email stating that the evidence is confidential (some of it is such as invoices from my employer before him) but it is available if the case goes to court.

Or should I ignore him?

He still owes me money due next Tuesday and I want to avoid court if possible. 

Any advice would be amazing x

Nobody here can give you properly informed advice because nobody has seen any of the documentation (although that won't stop some people being 'helpful'!).

If as the title of your thread says you need urgent legal advice, the only sensible advice is to talk to an employment lawyer and ensure you have all documents readily to hand for them to review. That's by far the best way to nip this in the bud.

Savvy_Sue

And talk to your union if you're a member. 

Undervalued

Marcon said:

trudy1980 said:

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

To cut a long story short I resigned on the 2nd January (in person on a bank holiday) my boss did not take the news well as I was performing well and bringing the company a lot of business. I was placed on garden leave for a week and was told I did not need to work my notice and employment ceased on the 6th.

During this period I was accused of a lot of things over email last week I received a letter from a lawyer listing a lot of untrue statements regarding me poaching clients etc... I responded to the lawyers letter as requested and I corrected the statement with my version of accounts and stated that I had evidence of my responses. The Lawyers letter was suggesting that the case may be taken to the high court depending g on my responses. 

I have just received an email from my previous employer with the lawyer cc'd in he is asking for copies off all my evidence by next Tuesday.

What should I do???

Should I send evidence as requested?

Should I acknowledge the email stating that the evidence is confidential (some of it is such as invoices from my employer before him) but it is available if the case goes to court.

Or should I ignore him?

He still owes me money due next Tuesday and I want to avoid court if possible. 

Any advice would be amazing x

Nobody here can give you properly informed advice because nobody has seen any of the documentation (although that won't stop some people being 'helpful'!).

If as the title of your thread says you need urgent legal advice, the only sensible advice is to talk to an employment lawyer and ensure you have all documents readily to hand for them to review. That's by far the best way to nip this in the bud.

Quite!

It is important to understand the limitations of a forum like this. Although there are some excellent people (or there certainly were in the past) you have no means of verifying their claimed or implied credentials. 

Does your house insurance provide any access to a legal advice line? Many policies do and often people don't realise.

Otherwise your options are to either ignore them and see what develops or consult a solicitor. By the sound of it you may have to take action yourself to get your week's "gardening leave" pay. Often these situation degenerate into threats of "you sue us and we will sue you"!

chubsta

Get proper legal advice, although it is worth remembering that you don't have to prove a negative, they have a prove a positive - in other words it is them that has to provide evidence of wrong-doing, you don't have to prove your innocence.

Do not respond to their threats as you may inadvertently say something that can be used against you. A lot of people get scared when dealing with 'lawyers' as they see them having some sorts of legal powers (TV likes to portray them as crime-fighting super heroes), however all the power lies with the courts and lawyers are just another bunch of employees doing a job, and if you are not paying them yourself you don't have to even acknowledge them any more than you would respond to a survey-taker in the street.

Undervalued

chubsta said:

Get proper legal advice, although it is worth remembering that you don't have to prove a negative, they have a prove a positive - in other words it is them that has to provide evidence of wrong-doing, you don't have to prove your innocence.

Do not respond to their threats as you may inadvertently say something that can be used against you. A lot of people get scared when dealing with 'lawyers' as they see them having some sorts of legal powers (TV likes to portray them as crime-fighting super heroes), however all the power lies with the courts and lawyers are just another bunch of employees doing a job, and if you are not paying them yourself you don't have to even acknowledge them any more than you would respond to a survey-taker in the street.

That is true in a criminal case which must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

It is less true in a civil action which will be decided on the "balance of probabilities", in other words 51%. If the employer does make a court claim and the OP totally fails to respond, the judge can only decide on the evidence before him and that is likely to be in the plaintiff's favour.

I agree that the OP doesn't need to engage with the employer's solicitor and may well be best not to without legal advice. However it would be unwise to ignore any legal proceedings, should they be launched. 

pinkshoes

trudy1980 said:

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

To cut a long story short I resigned on the 2nd January (in person on a bank holiday) my boss did not take the news well as I was performing well and bringing the company a lot of business. I was placed on garden leave for a week and was told I did not need to work my notice and employment ceased on the 6th.

During this period I was accused of a lot of things over email last week I received a letter from a lawyer listing a lot of untrue statements regarding me poaching clients etc... I responded to the lawyers letter as requested and I corrected the statement with my version of accounts and stated that I had evidence of my responses. The Lawyers letter was suggesting that the case may be taken to the high court depending g on my responses. 

I have just received an email from my previous employer with the lawyer cc'd in he is asking for copies off all my evidence by next Tuesday.

What should I do???

Should I send evidence as requested?

Should I acknowledge the email stating that the evidence is confidential (some of it is such as invoices from my employer before him) but it is available if the case goes to court.

Or should I ignore him?

He still owes me money due next Tuesday and I want to avoid court if possible. 

Any advice would be amazing x

I think you should take proper legal advice as it will depend on what your contract stated about terms of leaving.

Are you leaving to work in the same field? Did you contact any clients after handing in your notice, or mention to any of them that you were leaving?

I wouldn't be sending them the evidence at the moment. Surely if they think they have enough evidence to take it to a high court, they wouldn't need your proof? 

DullGreyGuy

theoretica said:

To get anywhere in court your employer would need to be able to prove that you were doing things that were illegal or against your contract - can they? If you haven't done anything they would have a hard time.  I don't need to prove I wasn't shoplifting yesterday...

Almost every point in that is wrong...

The employer would be dealing with matters under civil law for which anyone can take anyone to court... it can be totally spurious. Now if the CPR hasnt been followed or if it is spurious, frivolous or vexatious then the judge has a high level of discretion to make the claimant pay the defendants costs even if normally excluded because of which track its been allocated to.

Shoplifting is a criminal charge which is judged by a totally different process, the CPS who bring prosecutions have several tests they must pass and the hurdle rate is "beyond reasonable doubt". For civil law the hurdle is "on the balance of probability" and so if you decide not to file a defense as you recommend then the judge simply has to decide if the claimants claims are more likely than not to have happened (ie are they plausable at all). In fact if you didnt enter a defence then it wouldnt matter because the system would automatically rule against you.


The crux of the matter appears to be they are claiming the OP is breaching terms about poaching clients, the OP claims they have evidence they havent. There is far too little information in the post to substantiate if there is any possibility of anything sticking... have clients followed the OP but they're claiming they've done it off their own back? Have no clients followed them? Has the OP been contacting former clients? 

Undervalued

DullGreyGuy said:

theoretica said:

To get anywhere in court your employer would need to be able to prove that you were doing things that were illegal or against your contract - can they? If you haven't done anything they would have a hard time.  I don't need to prove I wasn't shoplifting yesterday...

Almost every point in that is wrong...

The employer would be dealing with matters under civil law for which anyone can take anyone to court... it can be totally spurious. Now if the CPR hasnt been followed or if it is spurious, frivolous or vexatious then the judge has a high level of discretion to make the claimant pay the defendants costs even if normally excluded because of which track its been allocated to.

Shoplifting is a criminal charge which is judged by a totally different process, the CPS who bring prosecutions have several tests they must pass and the hurdle rate is "beyond reasonable doubt". For civil law the hurdle is "on the balance of probability" and so if you decide not to file a defense as you recommend then the judge simply has to decide if the claimants claims are more likely than not to have happened (ie are they plausable at all). In fact if you didnt enter a defence then it wouldnt matter because the system would automatically rule against you.


The crux of the matter appears to be they are claiming the OP is breaching terms about poaching clients, the OP claims they have evidence they havent. There is far too little information in the post to substantiate if there is any possibility of anything sticking... have clients followed the OP but they're claiming they've done it off their own back? Have no clients followed them? Has the OP been contacting former clients? 

Indeed and just to add, somebody could be acquitted of the criminal charge of shoplifting yet still held liable in a civil court for the value of the goods. Effectively the criminal court has to be 95% sure whereas the civil court only has to be 51% sure.