Transcripts: Unit 3, Situations 1 and 2, No.3: Situation 1: Mr Barney Mc Kinley from Birmingham calls. He would like to speak to Dr Schmidt. Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner, mein Name ist Petra Horch. Ehm My name is Barney Mc Kinley from England. Do you speak English? Yes, of course. Can you spell your name, please? That s M C K I N L E Y and my first name is Barney: B A R N E Y. Thank you very much. How can I help you? I d like to talk to Dr Schmidt, please. Could you tell me what it s about? Yes, I wonder if he could give me some information about the automatic debt collection procedure. I m the owner of a wholesale company based here in Düsseldorf and one of my clients hasn t paid an invoice in spite of two reminders I sent. As my accountant told me, the automatic debt collection procedure should be a suitable way to collect the outstanding sum of money. Could you hold the line, please? I ll try to put you through to Dr Schmidt. (..) tries to put through to Dr Schmidt Mr Mc Kinley? Thanks for holding. I m afraid Dr Schmidt is unavailable at the moment. Would you like to leave a message? Yes, please. Ask him to ring me back on 0211 34567111. I d like to discuss the case with him. Certainly. I ll make sure that he gets the message. Thank you for calling, Mr Mc Kinley, good bye. Good bye. Situation 2: Mrs Celia Snellings from Bingley. She would like to speak to the other senior partner, Mr Gerber.
Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner, mein Name ist Petra Horch. Snellings: Hello, Ms Horch, could you put me through to Mr Gerber, please? Could you give me your name, please? Snellings: Oh dear, I completely forgot. Sorry. It s Gloria Snellings from Bingley. May I ask why you are calling, Mrs Snellings? Snellings: I had arranged an appointment with Mr Gerber for Thursday, 4 October 20 at 3 o clock. I m afraid I m not in Düsseldorf on that day. I ll be on a business trip to France. When will you be back? Snellings: On 11 October. Would Friday morning, 12 October at 10 a.m. suit you? Snellings: What about 11 o clock? Fine. 11 o clock. I ve entered your new appointment for Friday, 12 October 20., 11 o clock. Snellings: Thank you very much, Ms Horch. You re welcome. Good bye. See you then, Mrs Snellings, Snellings: Goodbye. Unit 3, No. 4: Call 1: Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner, Sie sprechen mit Petra Horch, guten Morgen. Caller 1: My name is William Goldstein. Do you speak English? Yes, I do. How can I help you? Caller 1: I d like to arrange an appointment with Dr Schmidt. Yes, of course. Could you spell your name please? Caller 1: That s W I L L I A M G O L D S T E I N. Would Monday, 31 August, 1.45 pm suit you, Mr Goldstein? Caller 1: That would be fine with me! And your telephone number, Mr Goldstein? Caller 1: That s 0176 987562. 0176 987562. Caller1: Exactly. Thank you, Mr Goldstein. We look forward to seeing you on Monday, good bye. Caller 1: Good bye. Call 2:
Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner, Sie sprechen mit Petra Horch, guten Tag. Caller 2: This is Jenny Dancer. I m calling from Bingley. Do you speak English, Ms Horch? Yes, I do. What can I do for you, Ms Dancer? Caller 2: Could I make an appointment with one of your lawyers? I d like to set up a company in Germany. Of course. What about Wednesday, 2 December, 10.30 am? Caller 2: Wednesday, 2 December, 10.30 am. I ve noted that. Could you spell your name, please, Ms Dancer? Caller 2: That s J E N N Y D A N C E R. And your telephone number in case there might be a change? Caller 2: That s 0162 9843211. 0162 9843211. Thank you very much. Have a safe trip to Germany. Caller 2: Thank you. See you next week. Call 3: Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner, Sie sprechen mit Petra Horch, guten Morgen. Caller 3: Tom Dexter. Good morning, Ms Horch. I d like to arrange a meeting with Mr Gerber on Tuesday morning next week. Oh, I m afraid that won t be possible. Mr Gerber will be at court from 9 am until 11.15 am. What about Tuesday afternoon, say at 3 pm? Caller 3: No, sorry, I can t make that. Is Mr Gerber free on Thursday morning? Yes. Shall we say Thursday, 17 September, 9.20 am? Caller 3: Perfect. That s Thursday, 17 September, 20 past 9. Your telephone number is 0211 5679900. Is that correct, Mr Dexter? Caller 3: Absolutely correct. See you on Thursday. Good bye and thank you very much. You re welcome. Good bye, Mr Dexter. Unit 4, No. 1
( ) Mr Adams: Dr Schmidt: Mr Adams: Dr Schmidt: Sorry to disturb you, Mr Schmidt, but you sent me this form the so called power of attorney. Can you explain what that is? Yes, of course: The paper is used in conjunction with all legal matters and presented by a law firm to its client. It makes sure that the solicitor is entitled to take action for his client in all out of court and judicial matters. As soon as you have signed and returned the documents that is the remuneration agreement and the power of attorney we will send the letter of demand to the debtor. Thank you very much, Dr Schmidt. I will return the documents as soon as possible. Good bye. Good bye, Mr Adams. Unit 5, No. 2 Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner, Sie sprechen mit Petra Horch, guten Morgen. Good morning, Ms Horch. Mc Kinley speaking. Is it possible to talk to Dr Schmidt? No, I m sorry, Mr Mc Kinley. Dr Schmidt is not in the office today. Can I help you? Yes, maybe. You know, it s about that customer of ours who is in default. We have meanwhile sent a number of letters asking for payment but nothing has happened so far. I have already talked about the matter with Dr Schmidt but haven t given him any details yet. He asked me to inform him about these details via phone. Why don t you read me of your latest reminder and I take notes? Splendid idea! Wait a minute. (.) Ah, here it is. This is what we wrote: Dear Ms Smith Our invoice No. 356/200A On 31 October 20 we supplied you with professional photographic equipment at a total value of 3,988.70, VAT included as listed on the enclosed copy of the invoice. As stipulated, payment should have been effected within 14 days on receipt of the invoice, dated 2 November 20..Although we reminded you several times of the outstanding amount neither have we received payment nor have we heard anything from you.
You will, of course, understand that we, too, have to meet our obligations promptly. For this reason we must now press you to clear your account immediately. Unless we receive your remittance within the next ten days, the matter will be handed over to our solicitor who will take legal steps against you. Please mind that the sole court of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contract is our place of business. Yours sincerely Foto Mc Kinley GmbH Barney McKinley Managing Director Enclosure: invoice This was 14 days ago but we still haven t received any payments yet. Oh dear. I guess, they won t pay in future, too. Let s see what Dr Schmidt says when you see him on Wednesday. I ve taken notes and will let him have all the details as soon as he returns. So don t worry too much, Mr Mc Kinley, our lawyers will do their very best to recover the outstanding debt! Thank you very much, Ms Horch and good bye. Good bye, Mr Mc Kinley. Unit 6, Situation 2, No. 3 (Piepton eines Anrufbeantworters, dass seine Nachricht eingeht) Hello, This is William Golding speaking. W I L L I A M G O L D I N G. I hope you can pass this message on to Mr Gerber. I m calling from my home town Croydon, C R O Y D O N, where I m starting to sort things out a bit because I m really in a mess at the moment! Sorry, I m very agitated and maybe that s why I m calling during out of office hours and I m talking to your answering machine. Look, this is what happened: I have run a medium sized, flourishing business for British food products in Essen Werden for 3 years now and regularly import products from the UK. 6 months ago, on 3 January, I bought jam, chocolates and cookies from a wholesaler in London at a total value of L 12,560.00. The sum was payable within 10 days after receipt of invoice. I transferred the amount after 8 days. Nevertheless I received a reminder after 2 weeks. I phoned the company. In vain. I received a second reminder. I sent them a statement of account to prove I had paid. In vain. A third reminder followed. I phoned again. And now they sue me for the L 12,560.00! I took a flight to London and tried to talk to Henry Smith, the owner of British Food Wholesale Ltd. He wouldn t even let me in! He hid in his office! Can you believe that?
Well, here are the details in case you need them right now: My address is: Delicious British Food GmbH Im Telgenkamp 43 45141 Essen The plaintiff s address is: British Food Wholesale Ltd 18 Bingham Drive That s B I N G H A M D R I V E London EC4 Henry Smith is the managing director. Gosh! Such a lot of information! I d better stop now. Please call me back as soon as you have listened to the voicemail. My number is 0176 7899654. I sincerely hope you can help me! Bye for now. Unit 7, Situation 1 No. 1 Call 1 Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner. Mein Name ist Petra Horch. Guten Morgen. TF: Good morning, Ms Horch. I hope you speak English. Do you? Yes, of course. What can I do for you? TF: My name is Fujita. Takeyoshi Fujita. I would like to arrange an appointment with one of your lawyers. Could you spell your name, please, Mr..eh..Fujita? TF: Yes, certainly. That s T A K E Y O S H I F U J I T A. And may I ask why you are calling? TF: Yes, see, I m Japanese and I ve been living in Düsseldorf for approximately one year now. My idea is to set up a Japanese restaurant in Kaiserswerth as a private limited company I think in Germany that called a GmbH. I was very successful with such a restaurant in the past five years in London, so I think I could give it a try here, too. But before we arrange an appointment, could you tell me something about the prospective costs of a consultation?
Well, we charge on the basis of a remuneration agreement at a rate of 170.00 per hour plus expenses if anything is fixed in writing, plus VAT. TF: Thank you Ms Horch, I ve noted that. Would you like me to schedule an appointment for you with Mr Gerber, one of our lawyers specializing in this field, Mr Fujita? TF: Yes, please, that would be very kind of you. Would Wednesday next week at 3 o`clock suit you? TF: That would be fine. I ve entered your appointment for Wednesday, 13 July at 3 o`clock. Just in case, may I have your telephone number, Mr Fujita? TF: Yes, of course: it s 0211 34 56 77 9 0211 34 56 77 9? TF: Exactly. Thank you very much for your trouble, Ms Horch. I look forward to seeing Mr Gerber next Wednesday at 3 o clock. Goodbye. Goodbye, Mr Fujita. No. 2 Call 2 Anwaltskanzlei Dr. Schmidt Gerber und Partner. Sie sprechen mit Petra Horch. Guten Morgen. TF: Good morning, Ms Horch. This is Takeyoshi Fujita speaking. Sorry to disturb you. It seems that I have a problem with your invoice. Well, I received your bill for 303.45 yesterday and of course I remember you told me that you charge an hourly rate of 170.00. Well, my nephew who studies law in Bochum told me yesterday that an initial consultation is not supposed to exceed 190.00. And Wednesday, 13 July was the very first time I came to see Mr Gerber, wasn t it? That s absolutely correct, Mr Fujita. However, the statutory cap of 190.00 is only valid if you consult the lawyer in a private matter, but in your case it was a business TF: matter as Mr Gerber advised you on setting up a business. Oh, I see. My nephew studies law in his first year. Maybe he didn t know that. I will remit the due amount immediately into your account. Thank you for your time, Ms Horch. You are welcome, Mr Fujita. Goodbye. TF: Goodbye, Ms Horch.