Litigation/Dispute Resolution

Costs lawyers have had a good year, with a healthy proportion reporting growth in excess of 10% and many bullish about the impact of more fixed costs, according to their representative body.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has approved a litigation funding agreement that was amended to take account of the Supreme Court ruling in PACCAR.

A judge has penalised a claimant for submitting an “unrealistic” costs budget, saying he hoped it would encourage parties to negotiate them before reaching court.

The Ministry of Justice yesterday published the Arbitration Bill, including a new statutory duty on arbitrators to disclose anything which might give rise to “justifiable doubts” about their impartiality.

The High Court has criticised a leading private prosecutions law firm for the information it provided to persuade a judge to issue summonses alleging fraud against three people.

The High Court has made cross-examination and disclosure orders to enforce a consent order made in the wake of a nine-year dispute between solicitors over the winding down of their law firm.

The Master of the Rolls today publicly accepted the recommendations of the Civil Justice Council’s costs review, starting with an increase in the guideline hourly rates in January.

A Commercial Court judge has blamed a claimant “in large part” for the “wholly unacceptable” last-minute adjournment of their case after he had begun pre-reading for it.

Lawyers and litigation funders have expressed disappointment at the government’s legislative proposal to address the Supreme Court’s PACCAR ruling.

The High Court has rejected an application by Welsh firm Hugh James for a group litigation order in the face of objections from 18 other law firms.

Nearly two-thirds of consumers would prefer litigation funders to take a share of their compensation from class actions than pay legal fees, research has found.

The government is set to recoup up to £42m a year more in court fees after proposing a 10% increase in over 200 fees. It also plans biennial inflation increases in future.

A disbarred barrister is facing jail for contempt of court after failing to comply with a court order relating to allegations of misconduct while acting as a McKenzie Friend.

The Court of Appeal will today conclude a three-day hearing on whether the courts can stay proceedings and require parties to engage in ADR as a condition of being able to continue their claims.

The heads of the judiciary have told judges and instructing solicitors to give junior counsel who are being led every chance to address the court as well.