Debtor – creditor

A combination of research skills, the ability to identify and use reliable resources, and experience enhances the chances of success in performing sophisticated legal language research on the Internet.

Learning Synopsis

This exercise highlights and illustrates the advantages of using combined research techniques to solve complicated legal English problems.

Exercise

A call has been directed to you by your law firm's reception desk. There is an American attorney on the phone who needs local legal advice.

The attorney and his firm recently performed a series of complicated and expensive services for Billah Consultants, a company in your jurisdiction. Billah provides financial consulting and offshore tax advice for private clients seeking to maximise returns on their investments and minimise their tax exposures.

Billah has a claim for fees against a wealthy, Washington-based American investor who refused to pay them based on his dissatisfaction with the service. Subsequently, Billah hired the American law firm to obtain a judgment against the American investor in Washington. The contingency fee arrangement between Billah and the American law firm provided the law firm with 30% of any judgment against the defaulting investor. Ironically, after obtaining a successful judgment against the American investor, Billah refused to pay its legal fees.

The American law firm has obtained a default judgment against Billah in Washington and is now seeking to enforce that judgment in your jurisdiction. However, the American law firm has learned that most of Billah’s assets are held in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands.

The law firm wants your advice on enforcing the US judgment in both your jurisdiction and the Channel Islands. Before they proceed with time-consuming and costly enforcement measures, the law firm would like to know the following:

1. Are US judgments enforceable in Jersey?


2. Are US judgments enforceable in your jurisdiction?


3. Are contingency fee arrangements permissible in Jersey?


4. Are contingency fee arrangements permissible in your jurisdiction?