At the age of 70, Pam Hoffman is still fighting the corner of hundreds of shopkeepers involved in legal and financial disputes. Asian Trader catches up with the woman dubbed ‘
The champion of the rights of independents’

Pam Hoffman took her first distress call from a retailer in 1972. At the time, she was a shopkeeper herself. The call was a simple case of an anxious retailer not understanding a legal document required of all shopkeepers. Knowing the law of the land she explained the document, what the retailer had to do and then hung up the phone. “It was a simple problem to fix, but the retailer was distressed about it. It felt good to be able to put him at ease. I remember he sent me a Christmas card to say thank you.”

Fast-forward to the present and Pam, now long retired from the shops she once owned in Woolwich, South London, is still on the phone and still helping a retailer in need. This time the case involves solicitors, a judge and a court of law.

“I’m currently helping a retailer who is caught up in a dispute with a large supplier of photocopying machines,” says Pam. “The shopkeeper told the firm he only wanted a one-year rental deal. But when the company salesmen came calling the retailer was at the cash and carry. His wife was in the shop and by the time the salesmen had left she had signed off on a higher-priced five-year deal.”

Upon his return the husband was livid. He accused the company of hoodwinking his wife into signing off on a deal she didn’t fully understand. After being rebuffed by the company he called Pam, who picks up the story at its latest twist:

“I phoned the company to complain and was rudely snubbed. I then put the retailer in touch with a legal advisor and together we took the company to court for improper practice.”

The case is currently still pending, although Pam is “extremely confident” the retailer will win, that she and the lawyers have amassed a “water-tight case against the supplier.”

For over thirty years, Pam Hoffman has been helping retailers throughout the UK with cases like this - some more serious, others relatively minor. She has a reputation for handling such cases with expert efficiency and an astonishingly high rate of ‘wins.’ What’s more, she does it all for next to nothing save her operating costs.

When she began, she would dispense telephone advice, write letters and read documents on an informal basis for retailers in her native south London. Many were Asian and couldn’t read or write English. “In those days lots of newly arrived Asian retailers were really struggling to make a living in tiny businesses. Many were also struggling with the English language.

“Even if they could speak it, they found it difficult to read. Documents, contacts and orders from the council mystified them, and they couldn’t afford the fees demanded of lawyers even for something like just one single letter.

“I was a member of the NFRN Our motto was, and still is: ‘If ever one man can help another, thank god for such a brother.’ Of course I didn’t ask for money. But I didn’t think it was any big deal. In those days retailers all pitched in together in the spirit of a brotherhood.”

As word went round the community Pam became inundated with calls for help. But juggling the workload of a shopkeeper, mother and wife was a strain. Pam’s impromptu advice service had started as a local affair. But now she was getting distress calls from as far afield as Birmingham and the north.

“When a man from the Midlands rang asking for help with some alcohol licensing requirements I knew I had to change something”, says Pam. “For one thing, my phone bill was soaring, and I was shelling out a lot of money on things like stamps and stationery. I was getting hundreds of calls.”

To make things more manageable, Pam and her husband Jim set-up the Small Claims Advisory Service. This is the organisation through which she still conducts all of her advice and counselling.

“Although it has an official title, it’s actually pretty informal. It isn’t aimed at making money but simply at covering costs.

Ninety-nine per cent of the retailers who contact the Small Claims Advisory Service are independent retailers. Pam charges just a few pounds for the advice she gives, the letter-writing and the advice she obtains from lawyers – a tiny fraction of what a solicitor would charge.

Over the years, she has become such an expert at dealing with small claims cases, it is likely that her handling of such cases is not only cheaper but also more successful than if retailers went straight to their local law firm.

“When I set up the Small Claims Advisory Service in the Eighties, I charged retailers only £5 or £10 to take on their case, nothing more.

“And £1 of every case still goes to the Ben charity. I never want to make money out of my fellow traders which is why the fee is so low. It basically covers my phone bill, stamps, letters and envelope fees in regards to a case.”

Pam’s services are as sought after now as they ever were. She gets dozens of phone-calls and hundreds of emails a week concerning cases she is dealing with.

One interesting case she has recently been dealing with concerns a shopkeeper who is in dispute with a wholesaler and a toothbrush supplier.

The retailer claims the wholesaler gave him a couple of boxes of brushes free with his normal weekly order, saying they were a promotion, The trader sold the brushes and kept the profit. This came to the attention of the supplier who claimed that as the toothbrushes hadn’t been purchased by either wholesaler or retailer, and that as the trader couldn’t produce receipts or records for them, he had effectively sold on stolen goods.

“Well the wholesalers suddenly developed amnesia,” says Pam, “and ‘forgot’ ever giving the toothbrushes to the retailer, which left him looking like a thief.”

Facing legal action and threatened with hefty fines from the manufacturer, the distressed shopkeeper rang Pam. “After much wrangling with all three parties I settled the matter for him. In the end he just had to pay a small nominal fee to the toothbrush company.”

Pam is also currently involved with a dispute between a group of retailers and an electronics company.

“Basically this company will come in and rent floor-space from a retailer, usually to put in a photocopier/printer/fax machine. “They will sign a cheque for £500 and ask the retailer for bank details.”

However, there have been a number of irregularities, with cheques bouncing and retailers reporting money leaving their accounts without authorisation in direct debits. The company insists they were entitled to the money as rental fees for their machines. But, with the support of Pam, the retailers are suing. “I’m determined to see justice prevail,” says Pam.