“HYPERBOLIC COMMENT” NOT WELCOME IN LITIGATION: HIGH COURT JUDGE SENDS OUT A WARNING: PLANE LANGUAGE IS BEST…
In Peregrine Aviation Bravo Ltd & Ors v Laudamotion GmbH & Anor [2023] EWHC 48 (Comm) Mr Justice Henshaw was critical of “hyperbolic comment” in relation to the witness evidence. This is not the first time that a judge has disapproved of the use of hyperbole in submissions.
“That kind of hyperbolic comment on the other parties’ witnesses has become all too common in commercial litigation.”
THE CASE
The judge was giving judgment in an action relating to the lease of four aircraft. The claimants called six witnesses. The judge noted that the Defendant’s submissions commented on the claimant’s witnesses in a way that was hyperbolic.
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The Claimants called oral evidence from the six witnesses of fact mentioned below. I mention at the outset that I reject, and deplore, the Defendants’ allegation that “the common characteristic of the evidence given by most of [the Claimants’] factual witnesses and their experts was a dogged intention to stick to the party line unless and until confronted by documents which could not be explained away”. That kind of hyperbolic comment on the other parties’ witnesses has become all too common in commercial litigation. In my judgment, it does not in any way represent a fair assessment of the evidence given by the Claimants’ witnesses in the present case.
I agree that hyperbole is always to be avoided (though this is surely at the lower end of any scale). Judges should avoid it too: ‘I am wholly persuaded’.; ‘I have no hesitation in rejecting’, ‘I emphatically reject’ etc; as should lawyers: ‘my clients will vigorously defend’.
Was it not Hemingway who weeded out all adverbs. If they are to be used at all, it must be with care.