Dispute settled by phone – a case of unintended consequences. The recent case of Thameside Construction v Arthenella Ltd provides a stark reminder of the legal effect (and the inherent risks) of conducting verbal negotiations – a party may end up unwittingly snatching an agreement from the jaws of a dispute. Most parties to a [...]

Litigation Funding – a new idea? It all about the money and now there is a new entrant to the market with a name, Caprica,  that might sound familar to those who followed the prequel to Battlestar Galactica The difference is that Caprica, the TV series, was a fantasy adventure involving far fetched ideas.  Caprica, [...]

Many people assume that when judgment is given in a money claim, if the debtor does not pay the debt the court will automatically enforce the judgment. Unfortunately, this is not the case and a creditor faced with the situation of a debtor who will not pay the debt has a number of options for [...]

European Commission proposes an optional common sales law. It may surprise some readers but less than 10 per cent of European trade is cross-border with the vast majority of businesses preferring to stick to national borders.  With the long-term goal of greater integration and harmonisation, the European Commission has invited consultation on a suggested common [...]

For the latest retrenchment in the law of unfair dismissal, look no further than the learned discourse featuring Philip Henson, Head of Employment, at http://bit.ly/uqIweK  

Judiciary call for courts to embrace of information technology Two leading members of the English judiciary, Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger and Mr Justice Vos have both called for the English courts to embrace information technology and increase the pace of reforming the inefficient, old-fashioned, paper based document system. This measure, they say, will [...]

Is the proposal to abolish Unfair Dismissal part of a wish list to Santa Claus? The paucity of detail in the extracts of Mr. Beecroft’s proposal to scrap the concept of unfair dismissal, recently leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, is lamentable. The final paragraph of the extract states that “the downside of the proposal [...]

A CPS press release reports that the first successful prosecution and conviction under the Bribery Act 2010 has taken place. A former magistrates’ court clerk took a bribe of £500 in exchange for turning a blind eye to a road traffic offfence. Under section 11(1), an individual guilty of an offence under section 2 is [...]

One of the consequences of the financial crisis is the growth in disputes against the banks which, at the top-end of the scale, involve claims for vast sums of money. Clients may think that the natural choice would be to turn to the “magic circle” law firms with much of this type of work being [...]

A survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators revealed that the UK is the cheapest place in Europe for international arbitration. Surprisingly, 74% of party costs in international arbitrations are legal fees and those fees are 26% greater in the rest of Europe.  Claimants’ costs averaged just over £1.5 million in the UK. [...]