Dispute Resolution
Disputes and different points of view are facts of business life. It is not possible to avoid them entirely. The key is knowing how to deal with them successfully and to learn from them. We explore what ‘success’ means with our clients. We then help our clients decide what to invest in a dispute (time as well as money) based on the likely return. These discussions will determine the resolution approach taken in a particular dispute. We use decision trees and modelling to help us try and predict the most probable result.
Threats to your business and its future success demand immediate attention. Well considered strategies are required together with effective implementation. This may involve, among other things, informal and formal negotiation, court proceedings, arbitration, mediation or some other form of alternative dispute resolution. Our dispute resolution solicitors in Manchester are experienced negotiators as well as experienced trial litigators. We have been enthusiastic users of mediation for many years and we have won awards for our use of mediation.
How Can Our Dispute Resolution Solicitors Help?
We adopt a flexible approach: some clients want us to ‘own’ the entire dispute for them while others prefer to call on our advice on an ad hoc basis. We are similarly flexible when it comes to funding a dispute, and we work with clients on a fixed or capped fee basis and on conditional fee arrangements where success determines our return. Our dispute resolution solicitors help our clients to arrange funding for their legal costs from a third party or litigation funders.
As the courts head in the direction of only awarding a contribution towards the costs of successful litigants, and as we approach a regime of fixed costs in commercial disputes, we work with our clients to ensure the costs incurred are proportionate to the amounts at stake in order to maximise recovery. Detailed costs budgets are an integral part of our project management from the outset.
We want our clients to see us as part of their team, trusted to deliver on time and on budget.
Our Ethos
Our own ethos focuses on our people and their approachability. This is central to our recruitment and progression paths. We want our people to develop long-term relationships with our clients, and we encourage our clients to ‘pick up the phone and talk issues through’ with us. Our clients know they can do this without fear of a bill.
We help our clients to protect their interests, pursue their entitlements and enforce their rights, as well as strengthen their strategies for avoiding problems in the future. Two of the partners in the team sit as deputy judges. Other team members are ranked in the leading legal directories as recommended practitioners.
The Dispute Resolution Services We Offer
Commercial
Disputes involving company directors and shareholders, contracts, fraud, LLPs and partnerships, negligence by professional advisers, restrictions in employment contracts, and sale, agency and purchase agreements.
Debt recovery
We provide a fixed fee systemised process allowing our clients to recover unpaid debts at an agreed fixed cost.
Intellectual property
We help our clients protect and defend the value in their creative assets, products and brands. We advise on copyright, counterfeits, database rights, domain names, parallel imports, passing off, patents, registered and unregistered design rights, and trademarks.
Real estate
Our clients are business occupiers, portfolio owners and property developers. We advise on all aspects of litigation involving property ownership.
Trusts and Probate
Our clients are trustees, trust corporations, executors and beneficiaries. We advise on the operation of trusts and wills, challenges to trusts and wills, and claims for reasonable financial provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975.
If you’d like to get in touch with one of our dispute resolution solicitors in Manchester today, please call 0800 131 3355 or use our online contact form to send us an enquiry regarding your case.
Our debt recovery team has a long and successful track record of recovering business to business debts. Some of the UK’s largest businesses trust us to recover what they are owed and our clients include Hilti ( UK), L’Oreal, PRS and DHL ( International). We also act for numerous smaller companies/SMEs and we have represented some of our longstanding clients for over 25 years.
Our team has worked together for many years and we work hard to get to know our client’s businesses and how they operate. By investing this time we can add real value to the debt recovery process and provide practical, effective advice as to the most appropriate route for collection. This advice is borne out of decades of experience.
We operate our debt recovery service on two alternative bases in terms of fees and costs.
If your call is in relation to a debt recovery matter with a reference starting PPL/ please contact
📞0161 509 5151
If your call is in relation to any other reference, please contact
📞0161 509 5181
If you are interested in using our services, please contact Paul Jagger on
📞0161 393 9012
How we can help
CONTENTIOUS TRUSTS AND PROBATE
We have extensive experience in dealing with the full range of estate and trust disputes, including disputes between trustees/executors and beneficiaries, contested Will matters and claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. We are ranked as band 1 for private wealth disputes in both the Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 legal directories and we provide pragmatic and commercial solutions to complex problems and disputes involving wills, trusts & probate.
Contact us on 0800 131 3355 to speak to our specialist team who can help assist you should you find yourself involved in such a dispute. Alternatively, you can fill in our online enquiry form and we will get back to you at a time that is convenient for you.
Types of disputes covered
At Pannone Corporate, our contentious trusts and probate solicitors specialise in all manner of disputes in this area, including:
- acting for claimants, executors and beneficiaries in a wide variety of claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975;
- acting in disputes between co-trustees and disputes between trustees and beneficiaries;
- applications to court by trustees and executors for directions;
- acting on contested claims for the removal of trustees and executors;
- acting in contested will dispute matters on grounds of lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence, fraudulent calumny, non est factum, proprietary estoppel and others and equivalent disputes concerning lifetime transactions;
- infant settlement approval applications;
- actions to determine the correct interpretation of badly drafted wills;
- disputes between cohabitees of property as to correct beneficial ownership;
- claims relating to allegations of financial abuse under Lasting Powers of Attorney;
- professional negligence claims arising from all aspects of wills and probate;
- rectification of trust deeds; and
- representing executors in commercial litigation matters affecting estates, including company disputes, partnership disputes, disputes regarding the ownership of land and actions to recover possession of estate property.
To get in touch, call us on 0800 131 3355 or use our contact form to enquire today for help surrounding wills.
Here at Pannone Corporate, our team of solicitors recognise that disputes concerning trusts and Wills are often very emotive and difficult. We adopt a collaborative approach with our clients and seek to take as much pressure off our clients as possible, whilst delivering clear advice. We strive to secure a resolution as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
With regard to fees, we know cost effectiveness and transparency as to fees is fundamental and we keep our clients regularly updated with costs estimates and updates. We regularly revisit the costs/benefit of our disputes and also explore other funding options with our clients, such as third-party funding.
We have been described as clients in our approach as being:
“…attentive, caring, extremely efficient, helpful and supportive throughout”
“…extremely professional whilst at the same time remaining approachable and empathetic”
Our experience also allows us to advise clients involved in these types of disputes on wider issues, such as the position with companies or partnerships where an individual has died and ancillary matters arising as a result.
Some Recent Contested Probate Cases Include:
- Successfully defending an Inheritance Act claim relating to an Estate worth over £1.6million at a four-day trial in the High Court;
- Successfully proving a Will where disgruntled beneficiaries alleged the Will was invalid on grounds of lack of capacity and fraudulent calumny; and
- Negotiating a settlement for a client in an Inheritance Act claim whose partner of over 35 years had died without leaving a will. The client received a sizeable sum in an estate worth over £4million.
Contact us on 0800 131 3355 to speak to our specialist contentious probate solicitors who can help guide you through any dispute relating to a Will or trust. Alternatively, you can fill in our online enquiry form and we will get back to you at a time that is convenient for you.
Property underpins business. Most businesses require premises from which they can operate. Indeed, for many, property forms the very core of their undertaking.
The real estate litigation team, led by Gemma Staples, has a wealth of experience at providing commercial and pragmatic advice across the full range of real estate litigation matters including:
- estate management;
- lease termination and renewal;
- development issues;
- forfeiture;
- breach of contract;
- debt and insolvency;
- guarantee claims;
- dilapidations;
- consents;
- residential and commercial possession;
- professional negligence;
- telecoms;
- trespass;
- protestors;
- boundaries; and
- disputed ownership.
The team routinely handles technically complex and high value matters for landlords, tenants, developers and investors, with a particular focus on the retail sector. Its strength lies in managing risk and, when disagreements arise, preventing them from escalating into full blow disputes and formal litigation. It recognises that clients prefer to focus on the core of their business and litigation is generally an unwelcome distraction. It prides itself on offering straightforward and cost-effective advice and creative solutions to those problems.
Gemma Staples is ranked in The Legal 500 and Chambers UK and is noted in the 2025 editions as being a strong decision maker with an encyclopaedic knowledge of property law, extensive experience of related areas, high levels of commerciality and a sophisticated approach to complex problems.
Clients comment that Gemma is “exceptionally efficient and has a laser-like focus on the client’s real commercial objectives; she is highly skilled at cutting through to the issues that really matter”.
Legal 500 2025 further comments that that the team “are extremely client-focused and go above and beyond to provide sound advice based on current market trends and expectations.”
Clients include Ardagh Glass, the Emerson Group, Exertis, Manchester Central Convention Centre, New Balance, Total Fitness and the Tradebe Group.
Examples of recent cases include:
- defending a recycling company in a claim for trespass, nuisance and environmental contamination. This highly complex matter involved the assessment of a variety of contaminants in soil, contributory contamination from historic use and other sources; and possible remediation strategies dependent on the anticipated future use of the land in question;
- providing detailed strategic advice to a retail client on its exit from a key distribution centre as a consequence of the landlord’s desire to redevelop, maximising the client’s relocation timescale and securing rateable value compensation in excess of £1 million;
- acting for a local investor and successfully pursuing a well-known food retailer for a significant dilapidations claim, with particular focus on the roof and the work required to restore it to the state and condition contemplated by the lease;
- advising a North West business owner in its claim for renewal of its lease of an iconic building in Manchester in the face of opposition from the landlord on the grounds of re-development, and reaching an agreement which secured the future of the building;
- advising a commercial tenant in connection with its application for an injunction to remedy the landlord’s serious breaches of covenant which are a serious health and safety issue and which have caused damage to multi-million-pound assets thereby threatening the survival of the business;
- advising an investor / developer in connection with defective cladding issues arising out of Grenfell and seeking recourse against the original contractor.
Inevitably, litigation does arise. When it does, we work with you, as part of your team to develop a commercial and pragmatic strategy to shape the process and achieve your goal. We ensure that work is proportionate and undertaken at the most efficient level. We provide transparent, stepped costings so that you can budget for what costs are going to be incurred, and when.
We are also adept at employing various methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution, including mediation and arbitration to encourage settlement outside of the court process. Our job is to manage your dispute and employ the correct range of tactics to bring it to a swift conclusion that you are comfortable with; so you can continue to focus on the core of your business.
Our commercial litigation solicitors in Manchester understand that you require a dedicated team at your disposal. Our own ethos focuses on our people and their approachability. We want our people to develop long-term relationships with our clients, and we encourage our clients to ‘pick up the phone and talk issues through’ with us. Our clients know they can do this without fear of a bill. We want our clients to see us as part of their team, trusted to deliver on time and on a budget so if you need legal advice or assistance our local team of litigation solicitors Manchester are here to help.
Contact us on 0800 131 3355 to speak to our specialist team who can help your business today. Alternatively, you can fill in our online enquiry form and we will get back to you at a time that is convenient for you.