Off to the Royal Courts of Justice
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Published: 10 Feb 2021
How to survive and thrive in a pandemic
As a private company share valuer and expert witness, the last 12 months have been frustrating, particularly where business matters have been delayed, or social events (whether for business or not) have been cancelled due to the constraints of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Technology saves the day
But, as we all know, new technology has been forced upon us to cope with the situation and quite gratifyingly too!
Zoom has saved me so much time in travelling to and from meetings. Two instances, of the changes imposed upon us, I would like to share with you.
From Perth to London and back again - all within an hour
I was retained in 2012 by a firm of lawyers, to prepare an expert witness report on behalf of a client who fell out with his father on the management of their building company.
The son, my client, emigrated to Perth, Australia, leaving instructions with his lawyers to settle his claim for his interest in the company.
Years followed with email correspondence between the UK and Australia and snail mail correspondence with the father in the UK.
Long story short, the claim went to court and the first hearing was in November 2019 at the Royal Court of Justice.
I was not required to attend, but my client travelled from Perth to attend. The second hearing was in June 2020, which related to the financial settlement and was held as a video conference using Teams.
The client attended from his home in Perth, the judge from his chambers and I and the barrister attended from our respective offices. The judge gave his ruling that morning.
If it wasn't for Teams (the Microsoft equivalent of Zoom) we would still be arguing!
Reducing the carbon footprint and saving time to boot
The second great example is when I had a frantic call from a lawyer, whose client required a company valuation for the purpose of the capitalisation of a £1M loan.
The lawyer was based in London, the client and I were based in different parts of North East Surrey. We had 5 meetings, using Zoom and working from our respective offices, without needing to travel. I managed to complete my valuation report from start to finish within two weeks.
This must be the way forward, although some face-to-face meetings could also help at social gatherings, and there is nothing like having that 'feel' for the opportunity that you can only really get when meeting in person.
If you require a company valuation or an expert witness, please contact David Cane on 07749 080 806 or send an email David.
