About Me

I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, whose members are independently regulated by CILEx Regulation. As a Fellow of CILEx, I am also a Commissioner for Oaths. You can find me here. I am also registered with the Information Commissioner's Office as a Data Controller.

My previous role was as partner in a firm of injury solicitors in Cheltenham. Prior to 2009, only solicitors were permitted to become partners, but partnership rights were extended to Legal Executives that year, and I was one of the first 30 Legal Executives in the country to be appointed partner of a firm of solicitors. Two years later, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the House of Commons to a celebration of the first 100 Legal Executive partners.

Aside from my managerial role as partner, I dealt with a large and varied caseload, including injury cases ranging from trivial to fatal, from small injury claims to several hundred thousand pounds in value. One of the cases on which I was instructed to act by the relatives of the deceased, was described by the police at the time as "the most serious road traffic accident ever in Gloucestershire".

In addition to injury cases, I have dealt with a huge variety of work including contractual, franchise and warranty disputes, consumer and commercial disputes, insurance disputes, actions against public authorities, banking disputes, and actions in trespass and conversion. I also draft terms and conditions for small businesses.

In the distant past, I have also worked for insurance companies and am therefore familiar with the methods that they use to deny claims. Many years ago I left the world of insurers and have ever since fought for the rights of claimants against insurers and big business. I have long believed passionately that there should be equality of arms between a claimant and defendant in court. The numerous changes in civil litigation legislation since 2013 have made it less likely that the claimant will be on an equal footing with the defendant. In the Small Claims Court, with the "no costs" rule, this has always been a difficult issue, precisely because large companies and insurers still pay for lawyers, when claimants cannot afford them.

The rise from £5,000 to £10,000 in the Small Claims Limit from 1st April 2013, means that those with larger claims who would have been able to pay a solicitor for legal help, and then recover their legal costs if successful, can no longer do so. This has further reduced access to justice for those with a financial grievance, because larger claims tend to take more work to prove, and tend to be fought harder. This legal work generates legal costs that you will not recover even if you win, and therefore this rule change has increased the proportion of cases that may never be brought. If you cannot recover your legal costs even if you win, it is often uneconomical to start an action at all, and many people may now write off their loss over £5,000, as they have often done under £5,000.

After the Small Claims Limit was increased to £10,000, I decided that I wanted to use my qualifications and experience to help those who had to face the daunting prospect of court action on their own. I wanted to offer legal advice and assistance, and to do so for low fixed fees that would bring justice in the Small Claims Court within the reach of everyone, not just those with means.

At Small Claims Assistance, your case is not dealt with in a call centre, and is not dealt with by an unqualified and inexperienced junior, but by myself, a fully qualified and highly experienced lawyer with decades of experience of civil litigation.

Outside the office, my interests include keeping fit and photography, and I am also a keen drummer.

Dean V. Talbot FCILEx

Director, Chartered Legal Executive, Commissioner for Oaths.