Dispute Resolution Update - January 2020

Upcoming Event

• Contracts: Breaking up is never easy…   

• Tuesday 11 February 2020
• 9am-10.15am (registration and breakfast from 8.30am)
• Lewis Silkin LLP, 5 Chancery Lane, London, EC4A 1BL

In spite of the UK Government now enjoying a clear majority - and an appetite to “get Brexit done” - it remains unclear how our departure from the EU will unfold. In the face of uncertainty, prudent businesses are assessing contracts, their cost base and exposure to currency fluctuations. As part of such a review, the well-prepared need to develop exit strategies where arrangements have become, or will become, unprofitable.
In this seminar Mark Lim and Fraser McKeating will explore strategies for terminating contracts, how to operate contractual provisions and the risks arising when you get it wrong. Our session will provide a practical summary, focusing on best practice.
This event is aimed at in-house lawyers, contract managers and others who are involved in avoiding or handling contractual risk.
The event is free, but places are limited. If you or a colleague would like to register your interest in attending, please click below. If you have any questions, please contact our events team.

Click here to register.

Recent Articles

Brexit
Following the election of a majority Conservative Government on 12 December 2019, it is likely that the UK will leave the EU by 31 January 2020 in line with the revised Withdrawal Agreement negotiated in October 2019. We have summarised some of the key impacts that Brexit is likely to have on dispute resolution, including in relation to applicable law, jursidiction, service and enforcement.
Read more.

Without prejudice and without prejudice save as to costs – reasons to be careful
The judgment in Sternberg Reed Solicitors v Andrew Paul Harrison [2019] EWHC 2065 (Ch) has put practitioners on notice that mislabelling without prejudice correspondence may have serious implications.
Read more.

Witness statements in the Business & Property Courts: no radical change, but room for improvement

After a consultation period, the Witness Evidence Working Group has published its report on factual witness evidence in the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales (the “B&PCs”), i.e. the Commercial Court, the Chancery Division and the Technology and Construction Court. The report does not propose radical changes, but recommends a number of ways in which the use of witness statements in the B&PCs can (and should) be improved.
Read more.

“Once privileged, always privileged”
The 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.
Read more.

How damages are measured can make a stark difference in claims for breach of a tripartite collateral warranty
The High Court has given one defendant a stark lesson in how the measure of damages can make a significant – and costly – difference to the value of a successful claimant’s remedy.
Read more.

Parties making false statements in pre-action witness statements to face proceedings for contempt of court

In a case relating to a package holiday which will serve as a warning to anyone considering fabricating facts to support a letter of claim, the Court of Appeal has ruled that parties making false statements in pre-action witness statements (potentially exposed as being untrue by the witnesses’ own social media posts) can face proceedings for contempt of court.
Read more.

 Client guides

• Enforcing a Chinese judgment in England
  It is important for winning parties to be able to enforce judgments made in their favour. If a proposed defendant to foreign proceedings holds assets in England, it will be particularly important for a claimant to examine whether an English court will enforce a foreign judgment in their favour. With Brexit on the cards, certain reciprocal enforcement arrangements could fall away and parties might have to enforce under traditional common law rules. We have set out in this guide the process for obtaining recognition of foreign judgments in England. We have written our guide in the context of a Chinese judgment.
  Find it on our website! 

Have you met...

Benjamin is an Associate in our Dispute Resolution Group, working across a variety of contentious matters.
He advises on all aspects of Dispute Resolution with experience of Commercial Disputes, Sports Disputes, Corporate Crime, Shareholder Disputes, Competition and Cross-Border Litigation.
Before joining Lewis Silkin, Benjamin trained at a multinational law firm and spent time with a US litigation boutique, where he acted for claimants in follow-on damages litigation against European cartels. He also worked on one of the first “opt-out” collective proceedings brought under the UK regime.
Beyond private practice, Benjamin has experience working in-house having been seconded to Tesco’s Product Legal Team, where he supported matters across Food, General Merchandise and International Resourcing.

+44 (0)20 7074 3169    
benjamin.smith@lewissilkin.com