Contract: I heard it on the grapevine

Judith Hopper highlights recent case law on contractual variation ‘A party seeking to rely on a variation will find it much easier to prove that the variation took place if it has taken the practical step of recording that variation in writing.’It is generally considered good practice to include in a contract a clause which …
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Practice: The long arm of the law

Tom Henderson reports on a recent Supreme Court decision reformulating the test for when a claim will fail due to illegality ‘The Supreme Court found that, under this new approach, a claimant will not ordinarily be debarred from enforcing a claim for unjust enrichment simply because the money they seek to recover was paid for …
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Evidence: Careless whispers

Omar Qureshi and Kushal Gandhi consider the use of covert recordings ‘The court has discretion to exclude evidence in order to achieve the overriding objective of ensuring cases are dealt with justly and at proportionate cost.’In the recent case of Singh v Singh [2016] the High Court decided that covert recordings of conversations between business …
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Costs: Ours not to count the cost

Andrew Beck and Gwendoline Davies provide an update on pre-action costs ‘Issuing merely protective proceedings that, in all likelihood, will never be pursued, or issuing tactically to put pressure on a defendant to settle what might not necessarily be a very strong claim, could give rise to liability to pay the defendant’s pre-action costs.’A recent …
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Media: Private lives

Andrew Stephenson analyses the prospects of legislation to protect the right of privacy ‘Successive governments have declined to put forward legislative proposals, preferring to leave it to the courts to grasp the nettle and to face the ire of the press.’ Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that ‘everyone has the …
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Data Protection: Digital departure

William Long assesses the impact of Brexit on data protection legislation in the UK ‘If the UK was to adopt its own data protection rules and regulations, it would likely ensure that these comply with EU data protection laws, in order to obtain an adequacy determination from the European Commission.’On 23 June 2016, UK voters …
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Insights By Penningtons Manches: Keep it under your hat

Alex Fox and James Harrison ponder the practicalities of privilege post Panama Papers ‘The courts have adopted a somewhat artificial but common-sense approach in favour of maintaining privilege. This recognises that victims of cybercrime or intentional disclosure are placed at a disadvantage through no fault of their own.’We are all familiar with the concept of …
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Settlement: An air of finality

David Sawtell reviews the potential pitfalls and benefits of settlement agreements ‘The House of Lords accepted that a party may, in a compromise agreement supported by valuable consideration, agree to release claims or rights of which they are unaware and of which they could not be aware, if appropriate language is used to make plain …
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Injunctions: Cold comfort

Rory Brown examines the principles governing freezing injunctions ‘The lesson for practitioners seeking freezing injunctions (FIs) is to pay special care to target selection, both in terms of respondents and the property which is the proposed subject matter of the order.’ There are seven principles that govern, or should govern, the jurisdiction of the court …
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