Litigation/Dispute Resolution

Class action firm Hausfeld has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for allowing its independence to be compromised in the conduct of a massive group claim.

A businessman whose property company is suing a law firm for damages cannot provide security for costs in the form of an indemnity backed by legal charges and must provide cash.

The High Court has approved class action firm PGMBM terminating a retainer that leaves 183 litigants to continue their battle for compensation alone.

Calls for long- and short-term reform to the group action regime yesterday marked the launch of the Collective Redress Lawyers Association, as a tribunal refused to certify two opt-out actions.

On 18 August 2021, in Pakistan International Airline Corporation v Times Travel (UK) Ltd (Appellant) [2021] UKSC, the Supreme Court unanimously held that economic (or lawful act) duress does exist under English law. 

National law firm BLM has won a claim against a convicted sex offender it accidentally gave access to a vulnerable child’s confidential information and who then asked for money to delete it.

The judge in charge of the Commercial Court has complained again about inadequate time estimates, telling advocates they cannot ask judges to read authorities after the hearing as a shortcut.

Solicitors’ “vested interests in pursuing lengthy litigation” are holding back the take-up of ADR, the government has been told. Their “adversarial language” was also viewed as aggravating tensions.

A partner who celebrated a “huge jurisdictional victory” with a WhatsApp message which broke a Court of Appeal embargo has apologised to the court.

People with small claims care more about resolving their disputes quickly than whether the outcome is the right one, the Master of the Rolls has claimed.

Litigators should now put defendants on notice at the start of any matter that they will enforce an equitable lien if necessary, the senior partner of Bott & Co has advised.

Addressing so-called SLAPPs is “a behavioural issue requiring regulatory interventions” against lawyers as much as using legislation, the government has said.

A High Court judge has condemned the “clearest case of failure to comply” with the new practice direction on witness statements that he had seen since it came into force last April.

A law firm handling uncontested flight delay claims did have an equitable lien over the compensation, the Supreme Court has ruled, overturning the Court of Appeal.

The High Court has dismissed a £40m negligence claim against a leading tax barrister over advice he provided on three film financing schemes.