The Court of Appeal has held that the narrow “unambiguous impropriety” exception to without prejudice privilege, which permits courts to admit evidence of settlement discussions where a party has abused the protection of the privilege, is to be applied only where there is clear evidence of impropriety: Motorola Solutions Inc v Hytera Communications Corp Ltd … Read more

Despite the UK and EU having finalised a Trade and Cooperation Agreement to govern their trading and security relationship following the end of the Brexit transition period, there remain a number of uncertainties when it comes to commercial dispute resolution in cases involving the UK and the EU. In this post we look at some … Read more

The High Court has confirmed that it has jurisdiction to order disclosure of specific documents under the Disclosure Pilot Scheme, even where the disclosure relates to issues which are not identifiable on the face of the statements of case and no List of Issues for Disclosure has been agreed by the parties: The Commissioners for … Read more

The High Court has dismissed a strike out application in respect of a claim brought under section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (“IA 1986”) in respect of an alleged transaction defrauding creditors, holding that it is not necessary to prove a freestanding connection between the defendant and England, separate from the litigation itself, in … Read more

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that a Damages-Based Agreement, or DBA, can include a clause which entitles the legal representative to payment on a time cost basis if the DBA is terminated before the conclusion of the litigation: Zuberi v Lexlaw Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 16. DBAs, otherwise known as contingency fees, are a … Read more

The Supreme Court has today handed down judgment in the Covid-19 Business Interruption insurance test case of The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch and Others.  Herbert Smith Freehills acted for the FCA who advanced the claim for policyholders. Read more

With the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, and the lack of clarity as to whether the EU will consent to the UK’s accession to the Lugano Convention, attention is focused more than ever on the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements 2005. Hague 2005 is however subject to a … Read more

The Court of Appeal has held that parties seeking to introduce a new claim after the expiry of the relevant limitation period cannot rely on previously struck out pleadings in order to demonstrate that the new claim arose out of substantially the same facts: Libyan Investment Authority v King [2020] EWCA Civ 1690. CPR 17.4(2) … Read more