Litigation/Dispute Resolution

The High Court has refused relief from sanctions for a solicitor who claimed a profit share of £96,000 from a mortgage broker to whom he had referred a client.

The High Court has overturned a master’s decision to strike out a claim against a London law firm because of a release clause in a previous settlement involving its clients.

The government yesterday said it recognised “an urgent need for legislation” to prevent SLAPPs but would not at this stage commit to a standalone bill.

A circuit judge has made four non-party costs orders against the credit hire arm of AIM-listed Anexo Group, whose customers have to use its law firm, Bond Turner, to recover its costs from insurers.

The legal profession’s reaction to the King’s Speech yesterday focused as much on what is not in the government’s legislative priorities as what is.

A family law firm has had to take legal action against the ex-husband of a client after an associate accidentally sent confidential information about another client to him.

The extension of fixed costs to low-value clinical negligence cases seems likely to be delayed further after it emerged the rule committee did not discuss them last month.

Making a group litigation order would add “unnecessary cost and expense” to already expensive claims from university students over the lack of in-person teaching.

Two significant High Court rulings in which law firms’ billing arrangements did not achieve what they had intended, emphasise the need for reform of the legal framework.

Costs lawyers have become a fundamental part of litigation teams and this needs to be recognised in the guideline hourly rates and with the ability to apply for judicial appointment.