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Privilege lost in otherwise protected documents due to inclusion in settlement agreement
04 December 2019In a recent case, the Court of Appeal (“CA”) upheld a ruling that documents which would otherwise have attracted “without prejudice” privilege had lost their privileged status because they had been incorporated into a settlement agreement. The documents were therefore disclosable.
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“Once privileged, always privileged”
24 October 2019The Court of Appeal has held that legal advice privilege attaching to communications between a company client and its lawyers survived the dissolution of the company client, even where the Crown had disclaimed its interest in the documents concerned.
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Dispute Resolution Update - October 2019
10 October 2019Welcome to our October 2019 Dispute Resolution Update. We’ve included articles on a range of disputes, including summaries of recent cases and guides on key aspects of dispute resolution. With an increasingly globalised and fast changing environment, disputes are an inevitable part of business. Not only can we help resolve disputes once they arise but we also work with our clients to reduce the risk of litigation.
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Protecting confidential information and IP with search and seizure orders – who inspects seized documents first?
26 September 2019One tool in the armoury of any business that suspects its confidential information has been stolen and/or its intellectual property infringed is the “search and seizure order” (“SSO”) – a court order authorising a claimant’s lawyers to enter an opponent’s premises to search for, copy, remove and detain documents relevant to the alleged wrongdoing. In a joint judgment handed down just before the summer recess, the High Court has clarified the circumstances in which a claimant who is granted an SSO will be allowed to inspect seized material before the defendant does.
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Employer ordered to disclose privileged material
19 September 2019In a recent decision, an employer was ordered to disclose comments received from its external solicitor in relation to the dismissal of an employee because it had deliberately disclosed other related privileged documents which were helpful to its case. It could not cherry pick which privileged documents to rely on.
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Privilege disapplied: the “iniquity” exception
06 August 2019In an application brought by a hotel portfolio company (in liquidation) for a declaration that it was entitled to disclose a number of documents within its possession, the High Court has considered when the “iniquity” exception will apply to legal professional privilege. So what is the iniquity exception and what does a party need to establish in order to rely on it?
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Protecting confidential information – what steps can a company take when information is disclosed to the wrong person?
05 August 2019The High Court has entered judgment in default in favour of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in a claim brought to protect its confidential information and privileged material accidentally emailed by an employee to the wrong person. The Court had previously granted the ASA an interim injunction to prevent disclosure of the information by the recipient, pending a hearing of the claim. This case highlights steps employers can take to protect confidential information in these circumstances.
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Dispute Resolution Update - July 2019
10 July 2019Welcome to our July 2019 Dispute Resolution Update. We’ve included articles on a range of disputes, including summaries of recent cases and guides on key aspects of dispute resolution. With an increasingly globalised and fast changing environment, disputes are an inevitable part of business. Not only can we help resolve disputes once they arise but we also work with our clients to reduce the risk of litigation.
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Unreasonable non-compete clause could be rescued by severance
03 July 2019The Supreme Court (“SC”) has given a landmark judgment about the limits of post-termination restrictions (“PTRs”) in employment contracts. It ruled that although a six-month non-compete clause went too far by restricting an employee from holding a minority shareholding in a competing business, the employer could still enforce the key part of the clause.
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The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc) Regulations 2018, one year on
07 June 2019The UK implemented legislation on 9 June 2018 bringing into force the EU Trade Secrets Directive. This article looks at the impact this legislation has had in the employment context where a claim for misuse of confidential information may now also include a statutory claim for misuse of trade secrets.
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Employee ordered to pay over £500,000 in legal costs in a dispute involving breach of restrictive covenants and data privacy
24 May 2019Following a trial in the High Court where an employer was successfully awarded final injunctions to prohibit a former employee from breaching post-termination restrictions (“PTRs”), the losing employee was ordered to pay 90% of his former employer’s legal bill.
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Court of Appeal allows inspection of documents despite the risk of foreign prosecution
07 May 2019The Iranian bank, Bank Mellat, has lost its Court of Appeal bid to withhold customer documents from inspection in the English Courts despite the risk that this may expose the bank to prosecution in Iran.
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Dispute Resolution Update - April 2019
24 April 2019Welcome to our April 2019 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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Court of Appeal maintains interim springboard injunction in team moves case
15 March 2019Lewis Silkin has been successful in the Court of Appeal in resisting a challenge to the appropriateness of a springboard injunction secured in the High Court late last year. The injunction relates to ongoing legal proceedings concerning a team move and prevents a number of our client Secarma’s former employees and their new employers from competing and otherwise acting unlawfully.
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Going out on a limb - English courts and overseas defendants: jurisdiction challenges and the “three limb” test
06 February 2019When a dispute involves a foreign party or events that took place in another jurisdiction, questions often arise as to where the dispute should be determined. The forum in which the dispute is determined can make a great deal of difference. It is therefore important for potential litigants to know where they can commence proceedings and whether they can resist claims brought against them in the “wrong” jurisdiction. In a recent case the English Court of Appeal considered the test that will apply when deciding whether to permit a claimant to sue a “foreign” defendant in this jurisdiction. This article was originally published in the Commercial Litigation Journal in the March/April edition.
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Dispute Resolution Update - January 2019
16 January 2019Welcome to our January 2019 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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Court of Appeal finds no litigation privilege in internal emails discussing commercial settlement of dispute
09 January 2019The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by West Ham football club in its application to inspect certain emails sent internally amongst board members of E20 Stadium LLP (“E20”) and between E20’s board members and stakeholders, in respect of which E20 asserted litigation privilege. The emails were created with the dominant purpose of discussing the commercial settlement of E20’s dispute with West Ham over the club’s rights to use the London Olympic Stadium when litigation was in contemplation. The Court held that litigation privilege does not extend to documents concerned with the settlement or avoidance of litigation where the documents neither: (a) seek advice or information for the purpose of conducting litigation; nor (b) reveal the nature of such advice or information.
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Litigation privilege and the ‘dominant purpose’ test: ENRC decision applied
07 January 2019Did last year’s landmark Court of Appeal decision in Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Limited (“ENRC”) alter the application of the ‘dominant purpose’ test for litigation privilege where a document is brought into existence for multiple purposes, one of which is for use in litigation? The answer is ‘no’, according to a recent decision by the High Court. The Court confirmed the well-established principle that, for a claim to litigation privilege to succeed where a document is created for more than one purpose, litigation must be shown to be the dominant purpose on the facts.
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Encouraging ADR: Civil Justice Council publishes final report
19 December 2018Back in 2016, the Civil Justice Council (“CJC”) set up an alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) working group to review the ways in which ADR currently is encouraged and positioned within the civil justice system in England and Wales. The terms of reference included the review of existing forms of encouragement for mediation (and other forms of ADR) in civil cases in the Civil Procedure Rules, case law and the powers of the court, to consider alternative forms of encouragement and assess proposals for reform. The Working Group has now published its final report.
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Major overhaul to disclosure coming: are you ready?
23 November 2018Yesterday our commercial dispute resolution specialists Mark Lim and Paula Barry hosted a discussion about fundamental changes to the disclosure process that are due to come into force on 1 January 2019 as part of a two-year pilot scheme that will run in the Business & Property Courts across England and Wales.