Litigation/Dispute Resolution

Access to judicial data should be made easier to increase public trust, while fears it will be used to create accurate predictions of what judges will do are overblown, a seminar heard last week.

Parliament should extend the courts’ supervisory jurisdiction over solicitors’ undertakings to cover those given by incorporated law firms, particularly LLPs, the Supreme Court said today.

A non-compete undertaking given by one law firm to another ahead of them working together was reasonable and not a restraint of trade, the Supreme Court ruled today.

A man who received “devastating news” that his lower leg needed to be amputated seven years after settling his PI claim is not prevented by limitation from suing his lawyers for negligence.

Two innocent partners of a solicitor jailed for a multi-million-pound theft from their firm’s client account can rely on a limitation defence after being sued for the losses caused, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

A High Court judge has rejected an application by a law firm to substitute itself for a deceased claimant, on the grounds that it would be a form of champerty.

Consumers who do not have legal expenses insurance greatly overestimate how expensive it is and are missing out on its potential to fill some justice gaps, research has argued.

The Civil Mediation Council has warned against the idea that compulsory alternative dispute resolution needs to be “cheap or free”, particularly in lower-value cases.

Any form of compulsory ADR which is “not disproportionately onerous and does not foreclose the parties’ effective access to the court” is lawful, an expert group has concluded.

A QC who misused the urgent applications procedure for a Brexit-related judicial review has been ticked off by the Divisional Court but escaped being referred to the Bar Standards Board.

The Lord Chief Justice yesterday made a direct plea to the Lord Chancellor for more investment in the courts system, citing insufficient judges and staff and inadequate buildings and technology.

The High Court has refused to issue an order to prevent a collapsed company’s investors from trying in the future to reclaim the legal fees paid by its boss in defending him from their civil claim.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision that correspondence between solicitors a judge found involved “an element of deception” as to its real purpose was covered by litigation privilege.

A High Court judge has expressed her surprise at a London law firm’s failure to ensure “basic levels of compliance” with the Civil Procedure Rules by a client and its experts.

In-house lawyers and litigators have launched separate environmental initiatives to push for, respectively, “real change” in their organisations and smaller carbon footprints.