September/October 2015 #63 – Law Journals

Insights By Penningtons Manches: Time recording – all change?

Rustam Dubash and Clare Arthurs evaluate the new bill of costs and time recording codes ‘Fee-earners will need to think carefully about how they record their time – to which phase(s) and activities and in how much detail – but this is, in reality, nothing new.’ Opinion appears divided about the proposed new form bill …

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Practice: Old dog – new tricks

Gwendoline Davies and Marshal Ahluwalia look at the lessons to be learned from recent history ‘Utilising the underlying principles from the Khiaban case and thinking very carefully pre-issue as to the financial value of a claim in respect of the amount in dispute could well result in early resolution. Inflated claims are rarely conducive to …

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Abuse Of Process: Trial run

Laura Crawford and Jon Chesman warn against the expedient choice of defendants ‘Even if the claimant considers that the actions are sufficiently different to warrant separate proceedings, the court confirmed that this is a question for the judge to determine when exercising general case management powers.’ On Friday 11 September 2015, in the High Court …

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Arbitration: Déjà vu

Victoria Brooks, Tom Beezer and Hannah Cockerill discuss the recent reinforcement of final orders in arbitration proceedings ‘This case does not make any new law but represents a useful reminder of the important principle that an arbitral award will be final and binding, unless otherwise agreed by the parties.’ A recent case in the Commercial …

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Disclosure: On a roll

Giles Hutt and Whiston Bristow report on the shorter trials and flexible trials pilot schemes If there is one aspect of English court procedure that litigants would most like to change, it is probably disclosure. Not only is disclosure often time-consuming and expensive, it can also be immensely disruptive of a company’s operations, without always …

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Contract: No Rainy Sky over the Gower Peninsula

Clare Arthurs and Sebastian Kokelaar examine the role of commercial common sense in the interpretation of contracts after Arnold v Britton ‘Arnold does not represent a radical departure from what was said in Rainy Sky about commercial common sense. Both decisions underline the primacy of the words used by the parties.’ In the case of …

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Regulatory Powers: Flying solo

Martin Meredith considers the conduct of investigatory interviews ‘The SFO case reinforces the Law Society’s/SRA’s guidance that regulators are able to restrict who can and cannot attend a witness’s interview to support a witness being interviewed under the regulator’s compulsory powers.’ A decade ago there was debate over, and submissions made about, the propriety and …

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Injunctions: You snooze, you lose – anti-enforcement injunctions in the English courts

Garbhan Shanks and Harriet Stokes highlight the use of a rare form of injunctive relief ‘Where a party is aware that proceedings against it have been brought in breach of a jurisdiction or arbitration agreement, the first port of call should rightly be to apply for an anti-suit injunction.’In cross-border litigation and arbitration it is …

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Repudiatory Breach: Wrapped up in cotton?

David Sawtell investigates recent case law on repudiatory breach ‘It is unclear to what extent the “good faith” principle has altered the test restated in The Aquafaith. This is, of course, very unhelpful to wronged parties who need to work out (a) if the other side is in repudiatory breach and (b) if they are, …

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