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“Once privileged, always privileged”
24 October 2019The Court of Appeal has held that legal advice privilege attaching to communications between a company client and its lawyers survived the dissolution of the company client, even where the Crown had disclaimed its interest in the documents concerned.
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Dispute Resolution Update - October 2019
10 October 2019Welcome to our October 2019 Dispute Resolution Update. We’ve included articles on a range of disputes, including summaries of recent cases and guides on key aspects of dispute resolution. With an increasingly globalised and fast changing environment, disputes are an inevitable part of business. Not only can we help resolve disputes once they arise but we also work with our clients to reduce the risk of litigation.
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Protecting confidential information and IP with search and seizure orders – who inspects seized documents first?
26 September 2019One tool in the armoury of any business that suspects its confidential information has been stolen and/or its intellectual property infringed is the “search and seizure order” (“SSO”) – a court order authorising a claimant’s lawyers to enter an opponent’s premises to search for, copy, remove and detain documents relevant to the alleged wrongdoing. In a joint judgment handed down just before the summer recess, the High Court has clarified the circumstances in which a claimant who is granted an SSO will be allowed to inspect seized material before the defendant does.
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Law Commission confirms legality of electronic signatures
19 September 2019Following consultation, the Law Commission has published its report on the electronic execution of documents and confirmed that, “An electronic signature is capable in law of being used to execute a document (including a deed) provided that (i) the person signing intends to authenticate the document and (ii) any formalities relating to execution of that document are satisfied.”
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Misrepresentation: the truth, the half-truth and anything but the truth
19 September 2019When negotiating a deal, counterparties often exchange pre-contract statements and promises. Sometimes those statements and promises turn out to be wrong. Exaggerations, mistaken beliefs, misleading opinions as well as statements made recklessly might result in an aggrieved counterparty seeking redress.
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Mistakes in contracts – How to assess the parties’ intentions?
18 September 2019The legal remedy of rectification is an equitable remedy that, if granted by the court, may be used to amend a contract that says one thing, but which both parties had intended to say something else – i.e. a common mistake was made. The test to be adopted by the courts in assessing what the parties’ intentions were for the purposes of establishing a common mistake has been unclear and the source of much legal debate for several years. However, the Court of Appeal has now considered the issue and concluded that in certain situations that the correct test is a subjective one.
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Privilege disapplied: the “iniquity” exception
06 August 2019In an application brought by a hotel portfolio company (in liquidation) for a declaration that it was entitled to disclose a number of documents within its possession, the High Court has considered when the “iniquity” exception will apply to legal professional privilege. So what is the iniquity exception and what does a party need to establish in order to rely on it?
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Nottingham Forest FC loses High Court claims following club’s sale but plans appeal
06 August 2019The High Court has dismissed claims arising out of the sale of Nottingham Forest Football Club (“the club”) for breaches of indemnities in the share purchase agreement (“the SPA”) and for the alleged misrepresentation of the club’s liabilities.
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Parent company’s limited liability. Not quite so limited?
11 July 2019It is a basic principle of company law that the liability of a shareholder of a limited company is limited to the amount unpaid on the shares it holds in that company. Right? That’s why it’s called a limited company? This is generally true. However, in some cases, a parent company can be considered to have assumed responsibility for the negligent acts of its subsidiary.
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Dispute Resolution Update - July 2019
10 July 2019Welcome to our July 2019 Dispute Resolution Update. We’ve included articles on a range of disputes, including summaries of recent cases and guides on key aspects of dispute resolution. With an increasingly globalised and fast changing environment, disputes are an inevitable part of business. Not only can we help resolve disputes once they arise but we also work with our clients to reduce the risk of litigation.
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Contract interpretation: a helpful recap by the Court of Appeal
03 July 2019At the end of March 2019, the Court of Appeal handed down a decision which provided a helpful reminder of the modern approach to interpreting contracts.
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Fail to cooperate at your peril! Court finds that contracting party’s conduct was a repudiatory breach of an implied duty to cooperate
04 June 2019In a recent case, the court implied a duty to cooperate where close collaboration between the parties was required to perform the contract. The Court also found that one party’s failure to cooperate was a repudiatory breach that the counterparty could rely on in treating the contract as terminated.
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Court of Appeal sets high bar for parties defending fraudulent misrepresentation claims and dismisses attempt to broaden transferred loss principle
21 May 2019The Court of Appeal has confirmed the presumption of inducement in cases of fraudulent misrepresentation will be “very difficult” to rebut and rejected a Claimant’s attempt to recover the loss of its subcontracting sister company via the “transferred loss” principle.
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Court of Appeal allows inspection of documents despite the risk of foreign prosecution
07 May 2019The Iranian bank, Bank Mellat, has lost its Court of Appeal bid to withhold customer documents from inspection in the English Courts despite the risk that this may expose the bank to prosecution in Iran.
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Contract law update: Recent developments and practical tips
03 May 2019On 2 May 2019, Mark Lim, Sohrab Daneshku and Nigel Enticknap from our commercial dispute resolution practice group hosted a seminar discussing provisions that commonly feature in commercial contracts. Whilst important, these terms may enjoy limited attention during negotiations. We covered recent case law, offered tips on how to interpret key clauses and discussed how to avoid common pitfalls. Below is a summary of some of the key points.
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Dispute Resolution Update - April 2019
24 April 2019Welcome to our April 2019 Dispute Resolution Update which brings you news and our views on law and practice for dispute resolution. We’ve included articles on domestic disputes and international disputes, including summaries of recent cases. We have also included client guides on key aspects of dispute resolution.
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Going out on a limb - English courts and overseas defendants: jurisdiction challenges and the “three limb” test
06 February 2019When a dispute involves a foreign party or events that took place in another jurisdiction, questions often arise as to where the dispute should be determined. The forum in which the dispute is determined can make a great deal of difference. It is therefore important for potential litigants to know where they can commence proceedings and whether they can resist claims brought against them in the “wrong” jurisdiction. In a recent case the English Court of Appeal considered the test that will apply when deciding whether to permit a claimant to sue a “foreign” defendant in this jurisdiction. This article was originally published in the Commercial Litigation Journal in the March/April edition.
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Dispute Resolution Update - January 2019
16 January 2019Welcome to our January 2019 Dispute Resolution Update which brings you news and our views on law and practice for dispute resolution. We’ve included articles on domestic disputes and international disputes, including summaries of recent cases. We have also included client guides on key aspects of dispute resolution.
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Court of Appeal finds no litigation privilege in internal emails discussing commercial settlement of dispute
09 January 2019The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by West Ham football club in its application to inspect certain emails sent internally amongst board members of E20 Stadium LLP (“E20”) and between E20’s board members and stakeholders, in respect of which E20 asserted litigation privilege. The emails were created with the dominant purpose of discussing the commercial settlement of E20’s dispute with West Ham over the club’s rights to use the London Olympic Stadium when litigation was in contemplation. The Court held that litigation privilege does not extend to documents concerned with the settlement or avoidance of litigation where the documents neither: (a) seek advice or information for the purpose of conducting litigation; nor (b) reveal the nature of such advice or information.
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Litigation privilege and the ‘dominant purpose’ test: ENRC decision applied
07 January 2019Did last year’s landmark Court of Appeal decision in Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) v Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Limited (“ENRC”) alter the application of the ‘dominant purpose’ test for litigation privilege where a document is brought into existence for multiple purposes, one of which is for use in litigation? The answer is ‘no’, according to a recent decision by the High Court. The Court confirmed the well-established principle that, for a claim to litigation privilege to succeed where a document is created for more than one purpose, litigation must be shown to be the dominant purpose on the facts.