The Law On Penalties: Where are we now?

Natalie Appleby considers the position on penalties after the recent Supreme Court ruling in Cavendish and ParkingEye ‘The Supreme Court considered the development of the doctrine over time and declared that Lord Dunedin’s four tests from Dunlop have been taken out of context and applied too rigidly as a “quasi-statutory code”.’ Just over a century …
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Deposits: New thoughts on forfeiture of deposits

Recent cases have questioned the longheld view that an unreasonable deposit is a penalty that can be repaid in full, as Laurie Heller finds out ‘Modern English courts do not appear to apply penalty rules to deposits or to clauses providing for forfeiture of sums that have already been paid.’ In a contract for the …
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Landlord And Tenant Update: Penalty clauses

Nathan Searle and Kate Wilford explain the importance of watching out for potentially unenforceable penalty clauses and suggest some ways of tackling these issues. ‘There is no longer a clear dichotomy between unenforceable penalty clauses and enforceable liquidated damages clauses.’A penalty is a clause designed to deter a breach of contract, by providing for a …
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