The High Court has imposed indemnity costs in two recent cases as a result of a party’s unreasonable failure to engage in ADR: DSN v Blackpool Football Club Ltd [2020] EWHC 670 (QB) and BXB v Watch Tower and Bible Tract Society of Pennsylvannia [2020] EWHC 656 (Admin). In both cases, the party’s belief in the strength of its … 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

The Singapore Convention, more formally known as the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, was signed today in Singapore by 46 countries – a record number of first-day signatories for a UN trade convention. While not including the UK or any EU countries, the signatories do include the world’s two largest … Read more

The Civil Justice Council’s ADR working group has released its final report on ADR and Civil Justice, following consultation on its interim report released last year. The broad mandate of the review was “to maintain the search for the right relationship between civil justice and ADR” and to promote debate over possible reforms. The report … Read more

The High Court has ordered indemnity costs against a claimant who made repeated and serious allegations of fraud against the defendants and then discontinued the proceedings without explanation: PJSC Aeroflot – Russian Airlines v Leeds & Anor (Trustees of the estate of Boris Berezovsky) & Ors [2018] EWHC 1735 (Ch). The court endorsed earlier authority … Read more

The Global Pound Conference series – a unique and ambitious initiative to inform how civil and commercial disputes are resolved in the 21st century – brought together over 4000 dispute resolution stakeholders, at 28 conferences spanning 24 countries worldwide. Herbert Smith Freehills, global founding sponsor of the series, has teamed up with PwC and IMI (International Mediation … Read more

All too often, dispute resolution clauses may be treated as part of the boilerplate: the usual wording thrown in, with perhaps little thought for the particular circumstances. But the question of how a dispute will be resolved – whether by litigation or arbitration, where and under what law – may make all the difference to … Read more