The High Court has recently held that privilege was not lost in a solicitor’s note of a client interview in circumstances where the note had been disclosed to the SFO under a limited waiver and then referred to in the course of argument during a criminal trial held in public: SL Claimants v Tesco plc; … Read more

In a recent case, the High Court has clarified the correct approach to reducing damages in order to reflect a finding of contributory negligence where there is also a contractual cap on liability: Natixis SA v Marex Financial and Access World Logistics (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2019] EWHC 3163. The defendant argued that the court should … Read more

The Court of Appeal has granted an award for unjust enrichment where a claimant was contractually entitled to receive an introduction fee if a property was sold for a specified price and the property had been sold for less than that price: Philip Barton v Timothy Gwyn-Jones [2019] EWCA Civ 1999. The court rejected the … Read more

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal reconfirmed that the Duomatic principle can only apply where all shareholders have approved the relevant act of the company. It is not enough that a relevant individual would have approved the act had they known about it: Dickinson v NAL Realisations (Staffordshire) Ltd [2019] EWCA CIV 2146. … Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court refused to order the defendants to disclose further documents, beyond the 95 documents they had already produced under an order for standard disclosure, or Model D disclosure, under the disclosure pilot that is currently proceeding in the Business and Property Courts (CPR Practice Direction 51U): Agents’ Mutual Ltd … Read more

As another eventful year comes to a close – and we wait for the results of the UK general election later this week which will of course have significant implications for English litigation insofar as it determines the question of when or whether the UK will leave the EU – we take this opportunity to … Read more

The Commercial Court has held that an asymmetric or unilateral jurisdiction clause is an exclusive jurisdiction clause within article 31(2) of the recast Brussels Regulation. The English court was therefore entitled to continue with its proceedings where it was the chosen court but proceedings had been commenced earlier in Germany: Etihad Airways PJSC v Prof … Read more

The witness evidence working group has today published its report on the use of factual witness evidence in trials before the Business and Property Courts. The group was set up in 2018 to consider how current practice could be improved in light of concerns among the judiciary and practitioners that witness statements were often ineffective … Read more