Insights by Penningtons Manches: A song of coal and ire

Nicole Finlayson and Clare Arthurs consider the de-throning of a judgment on loss of a chance ‘While the Court of Appeal may have had persuasive and forcefully expressed views regarding why it, faced with the same material, would have come to a different conclusion, that did not support a conclusion that the trial judge had …
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Privilege: Making Briggs without Clay

Stewart Hey, Simon Heatley and Iona Macmillan Douglas brush the dust off without prejudice privilege ‘There was no dispute that the relevant correspondence was without prejudice (WP). The question for the court was whether any exception to the rule applied.’ Legal professional privilege has been in the spotlight (and very rarely out of it) in …
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Practice: Pleading awful

James Shaw looks at some pleading lessons to be drawn from recent case law ‘The relatively short period for filing a defence under CPR r15.4(1) necessitates a limited obligation to make enquiries of relevant facts not otherwise in defendants’ existing knowledge.’ In England and Wales, parties to litigation are now required to delineate the broad …
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Jurisdiction: Going out on a limb

Andrew Wanambwa assesses guidance on jurisdiction from the Court of Appeal ‘The facts of Kaefer were complex but the key issue in the case was whether there was a “good arguable case” that two of the defendants, AT1 and Ezion, were parties to a contract and therefore bound by the jurisdiction agreement contained in it.’ …
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Contract: Safe as houses

Gwendoline Davies and Claire Acklam ask whether a recent Supreme Court decision places a new ‘spin’ on rules for formation of contracts and implying terms ‘It is important to remember that contracting parties’ interests and understanding can differ and diverge.’ In Wells v Devani [2019] the Supreme Court has found that an oral contract was …
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Procedure: A tricky end

Michael Bennett discusses discontinuance ‘The best approach will usually be to try and demonstrate some form of unreasonable conduct by the defendant and use this to reduce the percentage of the defendant’s costs that the claimant is ordered to pay.’ When a claimant discontinues a claim it may feel like the end of a long …
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Adjudication: Back to the drawing board

Andrew Archer examines a recent application of the adjudication slip rule ‘Decisions of adjudicators should be enforced save in very exceptional cases and in interpreting an adjudicator’s decision the court should consider the context of the referred dispute.’ A recent High Court decision has provided practitioners with a helpful review of the authorities on the …
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