The High Court has recently considered the restrictions on collateral use of documents and witness statements disclosed in proceedings, and has provided guidance on what constitutes "use" in this context: Robert Tchenguiz and Another v Grant Thornton UK LLP and… Read more

The High Court has found that agreements entered into by a successful claimant to make payments to witnesses contingent on the success of the litigation were contrary to public policy and should not have been made. However, in the circumstances… Read more

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal has clarified the approach to be taken in determining whether the court should allow inspection of a document "mentioned" in a witness statement or statement of case: Blue Holdings (1) PTE Ltd &… Read more

The Court of Appeal found that a judge had been wrong to make an order excluding one claimant from court while the other claimant gave evidence, despite allegations that the claim was fraudulent. However, the order did not render the… Read more

The High Court has extended a witness statement deadline, where a party was in breach of the previous timetable, but refused to vacate the trial date to allow more time for statements to be prepared and served: Devon & Cornwall Autistic Community Trust v Cornwall… Read more

Parties to litigation sometimes wish to rely on evidence of similar but unconnected past incidents, arguing that what happened then is a good indicator of what happened in the case in question. Such evidence of "similar facts" is tightly controlled… Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court has held that in general it would be unfair to admit "potentially significant" anonymous hearsay evidence in professional disciplinary proceedings, although there may be exceptions to this in some circumstances: White v Nursing and… Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court has commented on the approach that should be adopted in exercising the court's discretion to exclude a witness from court before giving evidence: Luckwell v Limata [2014] EWHC 536 (Fam). In civil cases… Read more

In what appears to be the first High Court decision applying the court's new express powers to limit factual witness evidence, the court has restricted the number of witnesses that may be called by a claimant in relation to particular… Read more

The Court of Appeal has held that a defendant Chief Constable's late service of witness statements meant that it could not rely on any witness evidence in defending the claimant's allegations (which included false imprisonment, assault, malicious prosecution and race discrimination): Durrant v Chief Constable… Read more

Witness evidence and witness statements have long been given immunity from civil proceedings. The rationale is twofold: firstly so that witnesses in future cases will not be deterred from giving evidence for fear of being sued for what they say… Read more

In two recent decisions, the High Court has considered the circumstances in which opinion evidence contained in third party reports or articles is admissible in civil proceedings. In Rogers v Hoyle [2013] EWHC 1409 (QB), the court had to consider whether… Read more

The Commercial Court has held that it may be a contempt of court for a party to litigation to seek to prevent a witness or potential witness from attending an interview with the opposing solicitor, and this applies to both witnesses… Read more

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the English courts do not have jurisdiction to make a Norwich Pharmacal order that evidence be produced for use in foreign criminal proceedings: R (on the application of Omar) v Secretary of State for… Read more

The High Court has refused to order that the identities of certain witnesses should be protected and that their evidence should be heard in private: Cherney v Deripaska [2012] EWHC 1781 (Comm). The court accepted that it had the power to make… Read more

The High Court has held that the regime for compelling evidence, as distinguished from information, for use outside of the jurisdiction is exclusively statutory. Accordingly, a Norwich Pharmacal order cannot be used to order the provision of evidence for foreign… Read more

On 21 March Murray Rosen QC, head of Herbert Smith's Advocacy Unit, together with support lawyers Pamela Kiesselbach and David Phillips, presented a webinar entitled 'Litigation from a client's perspective: top tips from the advocacy unit'. Murray, Pamela and David… Read more

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee has agreed a proposal to address the concerns expressed in Lord Justice Jackson's costs review as to the use of "lengthy and prolix" witness statements (click here for a summary of his key recommendations affecting commercial… Read more

On Wednesday 21 March (12:45 to 1:45 UK time) Murray Rosen QC, David Phillips and Pamela Kiesselbach will present a live audio webinar which will provide a practical overview providing tips for clients and in-house counsel on how to approach and conduct litigation, looking at… Read more

Two recent cases have considered the circumstances in which non-parties can gain access to certain court documents. ... Read more

We have previously reported on the Court of Appeal's decision in Swain-Mason and ors v Mills & Reeve [2011] EWCA Civ 14 which, we said, signalled a strict approach to applications for late amendments (see here). The court in that… Read more

In a recent case, enquiry agents instructed by a judgment creditor had searched through documents discarded as rubbish on the pavement outside the London offices of the judgment debtors, made copies of relevant documents, and returned the originals to the… Read more

The final report in Lord Justice Jackson's civil litigation costs review was published this morning. The report presents the Judge's findings and supporting evidence following his year-long review. It will now be for the Ministry of Justice to consider the… Read more

Herbert Smith held a client event on 29 June 2009 to discuss the preliminary report in Lord Justice Jackson's year-long costs review, which was published on 8 May. There were presentations summarising the key proposals in the preliminary report followed… Read more

In resisting a summary judgment application, the respondent must put forward sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that it has a real prospect of succeeding at trial: Korea National Insurance Corporation v Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty AG [2007] EWCA Civ… Read more

In a decision which has provided valuable guidance in resolving an area of legal uncertainty, the Court of Appeal has clarified the conditions which need to be fulfilled for payments made towards management and staff costs to be recoverable as… Read more

A recent Court of Appeal judgment confirms that, in assessing damages for loss of a chance in litigation, the court should normally have regard to evidence that becomes available after the date the underlying claim would have come to trial.… Read more