The English High Court offers limited routes to bring “opt-out” group claims but, in recent years, funded claimants have attempted to bring representative actions under CPR 19.8 at a notable rate. The rule has been available,...more
The Civil Procedure Rules Committee is consulting on a proposed draft amendment to Civil Procedure Rule (CPR) 5.4, which would allow significantly increased public access to documents with potentially far-reaching impacts....more
As we have explored in our Class Actions series, the popularity of mass claims in the English courts continues to grow. Such claims represent a substantial threat to financial institutions but, at the same time, we are also...more
The time is right to review the rules on electronic service, says judge in a case involving invalid service of claim form. A recent decision in the English High Court highlights the continued need for litigants to...more
A recent ruling confirms judicial discretion to stay proceedings and instruct parties to seek non-court-based alternatives to litigation. The UK Court of Appeal has ruled that the court has the authority to stay...more
The question of how to resolve mass torts is one that occupies the minds of all modern commercial litigators. Whether those mass torts involve personal injury or the mis-selling of financial products, resolution is a subject...more
There are various ways in the English High Court to bring a claim, including as a group or representative action. Historically they have been underused but that is changing. Businesses are becoming increasingly interested in...more
We have previously reported on changes the Law Commission was considering to the Arbitration Act 1996 (the Act). The Law Commission has now published its final report (the Final Report, available here). The report draws...more
In 2023, the international arbitration landscape is dominated by macroeconomic factors. The inflationary pressures combined with price volatility and the use of sanctions by governments following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine...more
FSMA 2023 includes a court procedure for failing insurers to temporarily write-down liabilities, with implications for counterparties. The recently passed Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (FSMA 2023) provides for a...more
To bring a collective competition action in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”), a proposed class representative first has to have their claim certified by the CAT. The CAT’s approach to certification is therefore an...more
A recent Technology & Construction Court’s judgment considers the procedural time limits that apply in procurement litigation. The question of timing in bringing a claim in procurement challenges is not straightforward,...more
Contracts in the construction industry often include multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses. These are clauses which set out in an escalating sequence the stages of dispute avoidance and/or alternative dispute resolution...more
Our May update includes cases on the removal of an EAT panel member for bias in a case involving religious belief and the teaching of children about same sex marriage, the effect of a CPO which prevents individuals from...more
The court determined that mere infringement of the GDPR is insufficient for a damages claim, but that there is no minimum threshold for non-material damages. In a recent judgment (Case C-300/21), the Court of Justice of...more
The courts of England are some of the most established fora for dealing with complex commercial litigation. The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) that apply to English civil litigation, which govern every aspect of cases from...more
The United Kingdom’s Civil Procedure Rule Committee recently approved methods of extra-jurisdictional service of Norwich-type information orders that could make it easier to pursue cross-border economic crime disputes in...more
Mediation is globally recognized as an effective dispute resolution mechanism. A trained mediator can assist apparently diametrically opposed parties in finding a resolution that avoids the time and costs of court...more
Procedural omissions for service out of the jurisdiction will not impact issuance of a claim for the purposes of limitation. In Chelfat v. Hutchinson 3G UK Limited [2022] EWCA Civ 455, the UK Court of Appeal recently...more
Sampling and extrapolation is a common approach for presenting evidence in complex construction and commercial disputes. The exercise involves identifying and examining a properly representative set of sample allegations, and...more
Litigation is, on one analysis, all about telling stories to impartial decision makers. Complex commercial litigation means that those stories are more detailed, more involved and more intricate. That means that telling the...more
The UK Court of Appeal endorsed a strict approach to the “same interest” test when it upheld a decision to strike out the representative element of a claim brought on behalf of 27,800 individuals and 457 communities in...more
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has delivered its long-awaited decision in the case of Lloyd [2021] UKSC 50, rejecting an attempt to bring a representative claim for compensation for "loss of control" over personal...more
The location of the data is not sufficient to avoid a disclosure order. When it comes to personal devices, people increasingly communicate across multiple platforms, often in an informal and unguarded manner. ...more
On 6 April 2021, an amendment was introduced to the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (S.I. 1998/3132) (the “CPR”) at Part 6 concerning service out of the jurisdiction. The change is of interest where at least one or more...more