“TRENCH WARFARE OF THE MOST ATTRITIONAL KIND”: ALLEGATIONS OF NON-DISCLOSURE AND THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS: “QUALITY NOT QUANTITY SHOULD BE THE WATCHWORD”
There are some interesting observations in the Court of Appeal judgment today in MEX Group Worldwide Limited v Stewart Owen Ford & Ors [2024] EWCA Civ 959 about the way cases should be presented in relation to allegations of non-disclosure. The Court…
CROSS-EXAMINING EXPERTS: USEFUL GUIDES AND HINTS
There are hundreds of posts on this blog about the role of experts in civil litigation. In many of those cases the experts have been cross-examined and this has not ended well – for them. I have already planned a…
“EYE ROLLING, HEAD SHAKING, GRUNTING, SNICKERING, GUFFAWING AND LOUD MUTTERING”: HARDLY THE STUFF OF GOOD ADVOCACY
In China Yantai Friction Co. Ltd. v Novalex Inc., 2024 ONSC 608 (CanLII), C. Chang.J, made some trenchant observations about the conduct of one of the advocates in the case. “It has long been a tradition and requirement of etiquette…
BOOKS ABOUT ADVOCACY: MUNKMAN ON THE TECHNIQUE OF ADVOCACY (A REPEAT)
Every litigator is an advocate, whether they know it or not. Litigation is fundamentally about the art of persuasion. This is a litigator’s daily task: in correspondence, on the phone, with the court. This is best done by the careful…
“SPEAKING NOTES” RARELY WELCOME BY THE COURTS: THE “SPECIAL CIRCLE OF HELL” RESERVED FOR SOME ADVOCATES…
There is an observation made in the final paragraph of the Privy Council judgment in Chang v The Hospital Administrator & Ors (Trinidad and Tobago) [2023] UKPC 44 that relates to “speaking notes”. They were, it seems, not altogether welcome. …
WHEN A SKELETON ARGUMENT TRIES TO INTRODUCE EXPERT EVIDENCE: AN APPROACH DEPRECATED BY THE COURT
We have seen many examples of witness statements trying to give expert evidence on this blog. There have been posts about occasional attempts to deal with lacunas in evidence by introducing that evidence in written submissions. In Re C (‘parental…
“FORENSIC SPEED DATING” IS NOT A DESIRABLE EXERCISE: PRACTITIONERS SHOULD LIMIT THE NUMBER OF AUTHORITIES CITED
In a post-script to the judgment in Invest Bank PSC v El-Husseini & Ors [2023] EWHC 2302 (Comm) Stephen Houseman KC, sitting as High Court Judge, raised concerns over the number of authorities cited and the impact this has on…
THE UNSETTING TRUTH ABOUT SETTLING PART 1: MORE MISSIVES FROM CANADA: “EXPERIENTIA DOCET”
We are continuing with our look at articles by the retired Canadian judge, The Honourable Joseph Quinn. For those who haven’t read them. For those unfamiliar with his work it is always worth reading Things Lawyers do to Annoy Judges, and…
CONCISION AND BREVITY IS BEST: (I’M SAYING THIS AGAIN…): EXAMPLES FROM HOME AND ABROAD
I am mining the back catalogue of this log (that is repeating myself again) to look at a post originally written in August 2016. It looked at judicial complaints about the length of submissions. This was where the judges were…
ON THIS BLOG NINE YEARS AGO: WITNESS STATEMENTS, WITNESS CREDIBILITY AND WITNESS SUMMARIES
Continuing with the series looking a posts from this blog from the past, here we look at posts from June 2014. This was an interesting month, the blog set out all the arguments that took place in the Denton decision. There…
APPEALS, BUNDLES AND “SPEAKING NOTES”: BUNDLES(INCLUDING PAGE NUMBERING) GO AWRY: A “SPEAKING NOTE” IS NOT TO BE USED AS A SUPPLEMENTARY SKELETON ARGUMENT
The judgment of Mr Justice Ritchie in Masih & Anor v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust [2023] EWHC 1280 (KB) contains many matters of interest in relation to the conduct of the trial and appeal. Here we look at two aspects:…
VULNERABLE WITNESSES IN THE CIVIL COURTS: THE VULNERABLE WITNESS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SHOWN CROSS EXAMINATION QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE:
There are relatively few cases relating to vulnerable witnesses in civil courts. In GKE v Gunning [2023] EWHC 332 (KB) Mr Justice Ritchie considered the terms of an order made to protect a vulnerable witness. Although the wording of the…
“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…
THE KEY POINTS OF DRAFTING WITNESS STATEMENTS: A GUIDE – FROM 1951: A HOMAGE TO JOHN MUNKMAN
There are several hundred posts on this site about the drafting of witness statements. These are usually written about because things have gone awry. The skill and effort involved in drafting a proper and appropriate witness statement are often overlooked. …
ADVOCACY THE JUDGE’S VIEW SERIES: “THE ROLE OF THE SOLICITOR IN THE CASE HAS ASSUMED GREAT IMPORTANCE”
The blog is getting to the age when I feel free to repeat things. Reader numbers have increased over the years and I am selecting posts of general application, rather than contemporary case law. We are looking again at the…
DRESSING FOR COURT: GUIDANCE AND TWO NEW USEFUL LINKS
Two posts on the “Yetanotherbloggingbarrister” blog are worth reading on the, sometimes difficult, question of dress for pupil barristers. I provide the links here. This provides a chance to look again at guidance given more widely. Not only for pupils…
THE ART OF CROSS-EXAMINATION: A JUDGE’S GUIDE: “STOP WHEN YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT”
The judgment in of Mrs Justice Cockerill in King & Ors v Stiefel & Ors [2021] EWHC 1045 (Comm) is a long and complex one. The case is worth reading because of the principles it sets out for pleading a…
SIR HARRY OGNALL: A TRIBUTE: SOMEONE PROUD TO BE DESCRIBED AS A “GORILLA FROM THE NORTH”
The death was announced today of Sir Harry Ognall. In January 2018 I reviewed his book A Life of Crime” . This is an appropriate time to pay tribute by reminding people what a remarkable book this is, written by a…
THINGS THAT LAWYERS DO TO ANNOY JUDGES: SCOWL AND POUT… & ROLL YOUR EYES
For the past two weeks we have been looking at some of the judgments of Canadian judge Mr Justice Joseph W. Quinn. To complete the series we will look again at the guidance he gave to the Ontario Bar Association in…
MORE GUIDANCE FROM JUDGES ON PREPARATION AND ADVOCACY IN REMOTE HEARINGS: “WEAR PANTS, SEQUESTER PETS”
I started the day with a look at guidance for remote hearings. As is often the way more useful guidance came out this morning in Bloomberg Law “Wear Pants, Sequester Pets: Five Tips From Judges for Zoom Court”. THE GUIDANCE…