Litigation/Dispute Resolution

County court judges would benefit from “more authoritative guidance” from the higher courts on whether unqualified solicitor’s agents have rights of audience, a circuit judge has said.

The work of the new Online Procedure Rules Committee will help connect the whiplash portal and other pre-action regimes to the court system electronically, the deputy head of civil justice has said.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal yesterday chose an opt-in collective action over an opt-out to pursue a multi-billion pound claim over a cartel that controlled the cost of trucks over 14 years.

The “high number of instances” in which the Supreme Court has reversed its position on the law has created “the troubling appearance” of the politicisation of the judiciary”, MPs have warned.

Fast-track and multi-track civil cases are taking between five and 15 months to complete their first case and costs management conference, depending on the court, research has found.

The plan by HM Courts & Tribunals to make the new damages claim portal compulsory for defendants from 2 June was pulled at the last minute for unknown reasons.

A Court of Appeal judge has deprecated litigators who display their “machismo” but found that a party’s approach to enforce a non-compete covenant went “too far in the opposite direction”.

The High Court has transferred another case from London to Leeds at the same time as senior judges emphasised that the location of the lawyers is not a trump card in determining venue.

Appeal judges have rejected a company director’s challenge against the assignment by an insolvency practitioner of a claim against her parents to a litigation funder.

The executive chairman of Winn Group – one of the country’s largest personal injury firms – has described how the firm has moved into commercial litigation for cases worth less than £100,000.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a high-profile entrepreneur’s appeal against a suspended jail sentence for contempt over unpaid legal fees, saying it could have been longer.

A client who went to the Court of Appeal to challenge the damages-based agreement she signed has admitted she alleged impropriety against her solicitors purely to escape payment.

The Court of Appeal has awarded indemnity costs against a couple who owe their former solicitors over £3m in outstanding legal fees and were committed to prison last year.

The strengthened rules on witness statements should not be used as a “weapon with which to fillet” essentially insignificant failures to comply, a High Court judge has said.

The Volkswagen NOx emissions group litigation settled yesterday for £193m – some £2,120 for each of the 91,000 claimants, but more like £3,000 when costs and other fees are added.