John Bett

Practice Areas

Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution and Litigation team, John acts in a wide range of contentious commercial contract, property and debt recovery matters. He is also particularly experienced in director disputes and cross border litigation.

John‘s extensive commercial property litigation experience extends to dilapidations disputes, breach of missives, recovery of arrears of rent, enforcement of keep open clauses and obtaining orders for the removal of unauthorised occupiers.

He is regularly instructed in proceedings before the Commercial Courts of the Sheriff Courts and the Court of Session, being involved in some of the more significant proceedings to call before the Court. He is also experienced in mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

John’s team assists clients with all aspects of the debt recovery process, from pre-litigation through to court proceedings and enforcement. He also acts in insolvency matters, regularly securing appointments and pursuing claims on behalf of insolvency practitioners.

John advises private individuals, insolvency practitioners and SMEs to public sector organisations, major Scottish based companies and multi-nationals.

Career

John joined Lindsays as a Partner in 2014

Work Highlights

• Instructed by Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers in an action served on them and the SPFL by Heart of Midlothian and Partick Thistle. The claim commenced at the Court of Session (See Note by Lord Clark, July 2020), before moving to arbitration. The arbitration was confidential, but the tribunal allowed it to be reported that they unanimously ‘refused to grant any of the orders sought by Heart of Midlothian FC and Partick Thistle FC’. The successful outcome for John’s clients meant that they had each secured their respective promotions for the season 2020-2021.

• Instructed by the successful tenant in the widely reported, high value dilapidations claim Dem-Master Demolition Limited –v- Healthcare Environmental Services Limited, litigated at the Commercial Court of the Court of Session.

• Acting for the successful pursuer in a breach of directors’ duties/ recovery of secret profit action McGivney Construction Limited –v- Jozef Kaminski & Glen Maree Contracts Limited. The seven-figure claim extended to include ‘springboard’ profits and involved cross-border applications for the recovery of documentation.

• Advising on a major fraud claim brought at the Court of Session in respect of the actions of a client’s former employee.