Reply to: Recruitment agent non payment

[mike67]

Libel law in the UK

The reason the OP says they don't want to name either of the companies is in case they are sued for defamation. This surely is not the case for the old company.

A quick primer on libel laws in the UK (see the Defamation Act 2013 for more details):

Firstly, a company can only claim for defamation if they have suffered "serious harm" which is defined as causing "serious financial loss". They have no money so can clearly not suffer serious financial loss.

Secondly, if the old company wanted to sue for defamation, they would need to pay some costs and probably hire a solicitor. But they have no money, so how will they do that?

Finally, if they got some money together and managed to sue you, firstly you would counterclaim for the money they owe you. And then there are three key defences against defamation. These are:

Truth: If the OP can demonstrate what tey said is true, any claim would fail.

Honest opinion: If the OP says that the matters posted are their opinion and it is a reasonable opinion for an honest person to hold, the claim would fail.

Public interest: If the OP can demonstrate that there was a public interest to impart the information (eg to stop others being caught up), they would probably successfully defend the claim.

[SueEllen]

Thanks I contacted Safer Collections via their web site so will see what they say.

The only time I can give up is when they pay me the money I am owed
I will do everything to get this back and ruin them professionally and will even go after the idiots in the government who have laws which allow this nonsense to go on

You allergic to using the phone?

Oh I would spend more effort on getting a better paid contract and credit checking the agency plus directors.

[pagrate]

You can't even name them on here!

Have you gone round to the directors house and posted maggots and fish heads through their letterbox at 3am?

Trying to do everything through legal means before i explore other avenues

[BrilloPad]

Thanks I contacted Safer Collections via their web site so will see what they say.

The only time I can give up is when they pay me the money I am owed
I will do everything to get this back and ruin them professionally and will even go after the idiots in the government who have laws which allow this nonsense to go on

You can't even name them on here!

Have you gone round to the directors house and posted maggots and fish heads through their letterbox at 3am?

[pagrate]

Debt Collection agency who has frequently posted on here is Safer Collections. They will tell you when to give up.

Thanks I contacted Safer Collections via their web site so will see what they say.

The only time I can give up is when they pay me the money I am owed
I will do everything to get this back and ruin them professionally and will even go after the idiots in the government who have laws which allow this nonsense to go on

[SueEllen]

Debt Collection agency who has frequently posted on here is Safer Collections. They will tell you when to give up.

[WTFH]

So, you claim you are owed £16,000, but you only spent £450 trying to get that back?
If you don't want to spend money with lawyers, then go to a debt collection agency.
If you want to spend money on lawyers, you're going to have to prepare yourself for 5 figure sums, which you may or may not get back if it goes to court.

We don't have a magic way of getting the money, you need a debt collection agency (who will take a %, but do the work for you) or a lawyer (who will charge up front and you might not get the money back)

[pagrate]

How much have you spent on the lawyer so far?

It was 1950 to start the winding up proceedings but because I withdrew this I get 1500 of this back

[Lance]

The lawyer did an audit and I was advised they had no money left in the company

If there's no money left, but the company still exists, and hasn't been wound by anyone that suggests that it's paid its tax bill (as HMRC often issue winding orders).
If the company does exist and owes you money and your lawyer suggested there's no point pursuing then I'm still not sure what you can do.

The debt collection agency suggestion is the best. If they won't touch it then you should give up.

[BrilloPad]

The lawyer did an audit and I was advised they had no money left in the company

How much have you spent on the lawyer so far?

[pagrate]

How do you know they have no money left?

The lawyer did an audit and I was advised they had no money left in the company

[Lance]

Just to be clear, they haven't been wound up as they have no money left so it wasn't worth me proceeding with that
And they didn't go through with their own liquidation so they are sort of in limbo now, probably hoping someone pays to wind them up.

How do you know they have no money left?

[BrilloPad]

The new one I can understand, if the old one has been wound up then surely there isn't an issue?

From the OP: -
I got a lawyer involved and we started winding up proceedings against the company.
The recruiter tried various stalling tactics to delay this and eventually filed for liquidation themselves.

As the date of the winding up proceedings got close the lawyer advised that the recruiter had no money left so it was very unlikely that winding up proceedings would gain me any money back, and advised it may be worth withdrawing the proceedings, which I decided to do to save me further costs.

-----------------------------------------------------
So the original company is not wound up.

The OP really needs to discuss this with the lawyer. Though they will just be throwing more money away.

The OP needs to listen to eek.....

[pagrate]

The new one I can understand, if the old one has been wound up then surely there isn't an issue?

Just to be clear, they haven't been wound up as they have no money left so it wasn't worth me proceeding with that
And they didn't go through with their own liquidation so they are sort of in limbo now, probably hoping someone pays to wind them up.

[Invisiblehand]

You really don't know how it works do you?

The poster can't name the old firm in public or the new one.

The new one I can understand, if the old one has been wound up then surely there isn't an issue?