Geraldine Stephens

Geraldine Stephens is a commercial litigation senior associate with seven years’ experience.

She assists with all varieties of legal disputes ranging from breach of contract, professional negligence, injunction proceedings, complex debt recovery, shareholder disputes, misrepresentation and contentious probate.

Geraldine joined Clarke Willmott in 2019 after working for a law firm based in South Manchester and London. She obtained a 2:1 LLB from Queen’s University in Belfast before obtaining a Commendation at the University of Law in Chester (formerly known as The College of Law). Geraldine has always volunteered in some capacity and as a way of putting something back into the community as well as for her own professional and personal development. Geraldine has helped run a legal advice centre for 7 years and is also a representative for the Solicitor’s Charity. She is a member of Manchester Law Society’s civil litigation committee. Geraldine was President of Trafford Law Society from 2017 to 2019. Geraldine is studying to become a member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS).

Experience

• Acted for the Defendants in the reported case of, NP Integrated Technology v Entwistle [2017] EWHC B21. This involved a trial over four days of a claim and a counterclaim concerning work undertaken by the Claimant Company in connection with the supply and installation of an integrated technology system at the Defendants’ house. In order to resolve the issues it was necessary to determine the disputes on an invoice-by-invoice basis and the Defendants were ultimately successful whilst also being awarded 85 % of their costs.
• Acted for the First Defendant in a claim brought by a Claimant seeking a declaration that it was the beneficial owner of a 1/3 of the issued shares in the Third Defendant Company. The claim was interesting procedurally and involved the following; relief from sanctions application, security for costs application, mediation and an appeal. The claim is a high profile, reported case, coming as it did before the Court of Appeal in a conjoined appeal: Denton v TH White Limited, Decadent Vapours Limited v Bevan and Utilise TDS Limited v Davies and another (Utilise TDS Ltd v Davies and Another [2014] EWHC 834), which was treated by the court as a guideline case for much anticipated clarification of the “Mitchell” guidelines to applications for relief from sanctions.
• Acted on behalf of a client who issued an action under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 in the High Court. The value of the claim was over half a million pounds and was issued against 8 defendants. The claim settled after a lengthy mediation.
• Recently acted for the proposed Claimant in a proposed claim alleging a constructive trust under TOLATA. Geraldine settled the claim before proceedings were issued at one day mediation.
• Acted for a Claimant that could not complete a very high value property purchase. It was argued that the reasons for not being able to complete the property purchase were reasons that were outside the client’s control and exceptional circumstances. The prospective claim considered a consideration of a claim under section 49 (2) of the Law of Property Act 1925 and was ultimately settled resulting in the client obtaining repayment of the majority of the deposit made.

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