Revisiting over 150 years of case law, the High Court has resolved a question on which both the courts and textbooks had given conflicting answers: is a director’s liability for payment of a dividend which is unlawful as a result of incorrect accounts fault-based or strict? Going against what appeared to be the established wisdom, … Read more
The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the documents of a dissolved company remain privileged, regardless of whether there is anyone who can assert the company’s privilege: Addlesee v Dentons Europe LLP [2019] EWCA Civ 1600. The decision establishes that, once a privileged communication comes into existence, that privilege is absolute and remains intact unless … Read more
The Court of Appeal has held that an action for alleged data breaches using the CPR 19.6 representative action procedure can go ahead, overturning the High Court’s decision which had refused permission to serve the proceedings on the defendant in the US: Lloyd v Google LLC [2019] EWCA Civ 1599. The decision is significant in … Read more
Parties may say all sorts of things when negotiating a contract. Where sophisticated commercial parties are involved, most pre-contractual statements will, no doubt, be both carefully considered and accurate. But as we all know, things can go wrong. Where a pre-contractual statement turns out to be false, the implications can be serious. The counterparty may have a right to unwind the … Read more
As we approach the deadline of 31 October, it is difficult to predict what will happen. But the prospect of a no-deal Brexit – either then or at some later date – remains a very real possibility. In this blog post we consider the implications of such an outcome for commercial litigation involving the English … Read more
As has been well publicised, the new Singapore Convention seeks to establish a global enforcement regime for settlement agreements resulting from mediation in cross-border commercial disputes. Signed on 7 August 2019 by 46 countries, the Convention could feasibly be in operation as early as the first half of next year (it will enter into force six months … Read more
The Court of Appeal has held that the court has power to order an early neutral evaluation (ENE) by a judge even where one or more parties do not consent to that course. There was no reason to imply into the relevant rule giving the court power to order ENE any limitation based on the … Read more
In a recent decision, the High Court has distinguished between correspondence which is expressly stated to be “without prejudice” and that which is only impliedly so, finding that the latter category (but not the former) can be taken into account on questions of costs: Sternberg Reed Solicitors v Harrison [2019] EWHC 2065 (Ch). There is … Read more
