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Let Lachaux begin - Landmark defamation case in the Supreme Court
14 November 2018Today the Supreme Court is hearing the second and final day of the appeal in the case of Lachaux v Independent Print and another against the Court of Appeal decision. Centre stage will be section 1(1) of the Defamation Act 2013, which, although has been discussed at length in this case so far, still requires clarification.
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Out of court appointments of administrators: a return to reason
13 November 2018When appointing administrators out of court, there is requirement to specify the date and time the appointment is made. This is a development arising since April 2017 as a result of the Insolvency Rules 2016 coming into force. Given that appointments are generally effective at the point of filing, it has been unclear how (absent a crystal ball) practitioners should address the requirement when preparing the Notice of Appointment form. A recent High Court decision resolves the issue, confirming that a notice making reference to a future filing is acceptable.
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Dispute Resolution Update - October 2018
01 November 2018Welcome to our October 2018 Dispute Resolution Update which brings you news and our views on law and practice for dispute resolution. We’ve included articles on domestic disputes and international disputes, including summaries of recent cases. We have also included client guides on key aspects of dispute resolution.
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Unexplained Wealth Orders
29 October 2018The English courts have handed down their first judgment concerning Unexplained Wealth Orders. As a result of the judgment the wife of a foreign ex-banker faces losing UK property worth millions of pounds unless she can explain the source of her wealth. Set out below is an introduction to Unexplained Wealth Orders, how such orders can be resisted and the recent judgment handed down by the High Court. We also identify some key issues concerning Unexplained Wealth Orders which remain unresolved.
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Disclosure Pilot Scheme to start in January 2019
29 October 2018The Civil Procedure Rule Committee has approved the new Practice Direction which sets down rules for a mandatory disclosure pilot scheme. It will run for two years in the Business and Property Courts in England and Wales, starting on 1 January 2019.
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The regulator and the right of reply: two recent cases involving the Financial Reporting Council
Case Study
29 October 2018The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is the regulator for UK statutory audits. Its responsibilities include setting audit standards, as well as enforcing the quality of audit. It is the investigative and disciplinary body for UK accountants dealing with cases affecting the public interest. FRC investigations naturally focus on those under its jurisdiction, such as its member accountancy firms and individual auditors. Sometimes, however, the conduct of the audited company and its managers will also be relevant. Two recent cases have discussed the duties owed by the FRC to these entities. The cases will be relevant to other regulators.
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Corporate Governance and Insolvency reforms
25 October 2018The UK Government is implementing measures to strengthen corporate governance and insolvency laws. The aim is to increase accountability, improve creditor protection and promote company rescue. This note comments on a selection of the proposals which were published at the end of the summer.
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Two wrongs don’t make a right: Court of Appeal decides illegality is no defence to professional negligence claim
16 October 2018For public policy reasons, the Court of Appeal has held that the defence of illegality was not available to a firm of solicitors that failed to register a property transfer to a client involved in mortgage fraud. The court decided that there was no risk that enforcing the client’s negligence claim would undermine the integrity of the justice system and she was entitled to damages, in spite of the fraud.
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SFO v ENRC landmark privilege case: no appeal but the story continues…
10 October 2018The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has confirmed that it will not appeal the Court of Appeal’s landmark ruling that documents created during an internal investigation by Eurasion Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) were protected by litigation privilege and do not have to be disclosed to the SFO. However, the story does not end there because in a new twist, ENRC has applied for a judicial review of the SFO’s investigation into criminal allegations of corruption and financial wrongdoing by ENRC.
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SFO V ENRC: Landmark privilege decision by Court of Appeal
10 September 2018The Court of Appeal has handed down its much anticipated decision in the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Limited (“ENRC”) appeal. In a judgment that will leave many lawyers breathing a heavy sigh of relief, the Court of Appeal overturned large parts of Mrs Justice Andrews’ first instance decision.
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Commercial Court confirms that Recast Brussels Regulation does not permit intra-EU anti-suit injunctions
21 August 2018The decision in Nori Holdings has reaffirmed that West Tankers remains an authoritative statement of EU law, providing welcome clarity following the introduction of the Recast Brussels Regulation and Advocate General Wathelet’s comments in Gazprom. However, whether or not the UK courts will regain the ability to grant anti-suit injunctions restraining proceedings in EU courts after the UK leaves the EU remains to be seen.
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Clive Greenwood and Frances Simm write for Accountancy Age: Compulsory retirement: avoiding the partner pitfalls
Press
20 August 2018In an article for Accountancy Age, Clive Greenwood and Frances Simm discuss the rules and processes involved when compelling an individual to retire from a business they co-own.
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Tom Merrick comments for LexisNexis: Requirement for non-reliance clause to be reasonable upheld (First Tower Trustees Ltd and anor v CDS (Superstores International) Ltd)
Press
26 July 2018Discussing the Court of Appeal decision in First Tower Trustees, Tom Merrick advises that sellers and landlords need to take extreme care in ensuring that replies to pre-contract enquiries are accurate and up to date and be alive to the potential risks in enforcing non-reliance clauses.
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Court of Appeal upholds enforcement of Chinese arbitration award in England & Wales despite allegation of attempted fraud
05 July 2018One of the attractive features of arbitration is the ease of enforcement of arbitral awards in other jurisdictions. The New York Convention (the “Convention”) provides a regime by which an award made in one Convention state should be enforceable against any assets in any of the other Convention states around the world. A recent Court of Appeal decision shows that the English court will only exercise its power to refuse to recognise or enforce an arbitral award on public policy grounds in limited circumstances.
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Supreme Court delivers key judgment on the availability of Wrotham Park “negotiating” damages
02 July 2018The Supreme Court has considered an important question in relation to damages. In what circumstances can damages for breach of contract be assessed by reference to the sum the claimant could hypothetically have received, known as Wrotham Park damages, in return for releasing the defendant from the obligation he had failed to perform?
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Hackers, Judges and Spartacus: Containing a Data Breach with the Court’s Help
18 June 2018Fear of publicity shouldn’t put off organisations from asking the court for help when they’ve been hacked, had data stolen, and are then blackmailed. There’s a range of orders which the English courts are willing to make against anonymous hackers and which, even if those orders are ignored, can be useful when it comes to containing a confidentiality breach – including when it comes to getting stolen data removed from other hosts/publishers, both in England and abroad.
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You’ve started – so you’ll finish
11 June 2018Claimants commencing proceedings in the Courts of England and Wales may not be able to end those proceedings simply by serving a notice of discontinuance and can be required to take the matter to trial. In this case the claimants were not permitted to discontinue their claim for the recognition and enforcement of an arbitration award under the New York Convention.
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Dispute Resolution Update - May 2018
24 May 2018Welcome to the May 2018 Dispute Resolution Update which brings you news and our views on law and practice for dispute resolution. We’ve included articles on domestic disputes and international disputes, including summaries of recent cases. We have also included client guides on key aspects of dispute resolution.
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Supreme Court upholds requirement to record variations in writing
24 May 2018Rock Advertising Limited v MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited is an important case. In fact, the opening paragraph of Lord Sumption’s judgment describes it as an “exceptional” appeal, raising “truly fundamental issues” of contract law.
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Construction Law Update – Fighting back against “Smash and Grab” Adjudications
21 May 2018The case of Grove Developments Ltd v S&T (UK) Ltd (February 2018) is worthy of note, not least because it potentially provides employers with a quick means of reclaiming the loss suffered, following a “smash and grab” adjudication by starting its own adjudication on the true value.