It may be possible for a month to go by without a mis-service of the claim form issue arising in the courts, but it is not this month. We have here a case with the familiar litany of waiting to…
We are looking, again, at a case where there were issues as to evidence. Part of the defendant’s case was that the evidence was not admissible or was hearsay. The defendant’s arguments did not prosper. Hearsay is admissible, the real…
Here we have a case where the claimant spent some six weeks in court, established that the defendant was in breach, but recovered nothing in damages. It may well be an object lesson in failing to prove loss. (A photo taken…
Back in 2013 I wrote a series about avoiding negligence claims in litigation. This is an appropriate time to update and refresh that series (with the benefit of hindsight perhaps I should have done that annually). Some of the…
A few weeks ago I was cagey in reporting a case about AI generated false authorities because I could not believe any lawyer could do this and was wary of the accuracy (indeed authenticity) of the report. Today I am…
A question from a group subscriber today led me to discover that every group subscription includes a “plus one”, so the administrator of the group has access to the site in addition to the number of seats purchased. THE…
For the second time today we are looking at a case involving the fallout following solicitors being involved in litigation and the funding thereof. It also involves companies in administration and allegations of cases being mishandled. The sums involved are…
We are looking at a case where – in no short measure – the judge was highly critical of the defendant’s pleadings. They were described as “the very antithesis” of the paradigm urged upon pleaders by the guidance given in…
The case we are looking at today has many levels. It involves the falling out of two entities that were involved in “mass litigation” for thousands of claimants. It shows something of the nature of this type of litigation. Arguably…
The courts encourages the use of jointly instructed experts However this does not mean that the case, or even key issues in the case, are necessarily determined by those experts. Here we have a case where the judge held that…
What is the appropriate response of the court if a schedule of costs is served late? This is an issue considered in a recent High Court judgment. It provides a good opportunity to review the rules, the guidance, and previous…
This is a case of many layers. It relates to an initial application to restrain the presentation of a winding up petition. The respondent asserted that they did not have no notice of the application and sought to set the…
It is eight days since CLB became a subscription site. I’m glad to say that the numbers visiting the site have not gone down and the membership system is working well. There are a number of common questions I am…
Is a person attending a public hearing entitled to sight of the skeleton arguments being used? Is disclosure confined to the press? What should happen if the skeleton refers to matters that fall foul of reporting restrictions? These are important…
We are looking at a short postscript to the case examined in the previous post. The judge made observations that were critical of a witness who had made a statement in support of an injunction. The claimant asked for the…
There have been some strong judicial criticisms recorded on this site over the years. I cannot recall much stronger than this case where the judge stated that “the court’s conscience was shocked” at the conduct of the claimant, both in…
There are several pieces of legislation that now have to be considered when a court is considering liability in the context of the defendant being involved in voluntary or similar activity. The Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015 has…
This series has taken an unexpected turn. I didn’t expert to be writing about a Court of Appeal decision that considered the precise pleaded meaning of the word “pornography”, but that is precisely what we are doing here. A decision…
Knowing the reasons why a judge may prefer the evidence of one expert over another is an important part of a litigator’s skill. Each case is, of course, fact specific, but there are clear trends that can be discerned. Here…
The “purdah” rule – that a witness cannot discuss the case and their evidence with others, including their legal team, once they have started giving evidence is of utmost significance. Here we are looking at a case where a witness…
It is rare for a wasted costs order to be made against a solicitor for pursuing what is seen as a “hopeless” case. However we have such an order in the case we are considering here. The Master found the…
Many, if not all, of those involved in credit hire legislation will already have read the Court of Appeal decision last week with care. The Court also considered the question of whether the fact that there are close commercial, or…
We are looking at a case where the claimant beat its own Part 36 offer and the court had to consider the consequences. There were some unusual aspects in that the judgment was not given in sterling. However the judge…
Can the court compel a party to file a witness statement explaining, in detail, why mistakes were made in earlier witness statements? That was the issue considered in the case we are looking at today. The judge considered the provisions…
There are two important procedural points considered here relating to to appeals relating to committal proceedings. The first relates to the court to which an appeal has to be made, the second to the scope of an appeal. Here we…
I periodically remind people (and remind myself) that one of the purposes of this series is to look at what is happening “on the ground” in relation to costs, including the summary assessment of costs. Practitioners may only have limited…
We may well be mining the Court of Appeal decision on the liability of car hire companies for costs across a number of further posts. Here, however, we are taking a look at the sections in the judgment that considered…
Here we are looking at a Court of Appeal decision about the drafting and construction of court orders. The order made in this case was totally deficient, consequently it could not be enforced. (Absolute precision is demanded here…) “……
We are returning to the same case as the previous post but looking at a different issue. The judge considered whether to make an order for indemnity costs against the claimants. The case is unusual in that such an award…
For the second time today we are looking at the rules relating to Qualified one way costs shifting (QOCS) and its exceptions. Here the defendant had spent £2 million successfully defending a claim, only part of that action was a…
This is the second post about the Court of Appeal judgment today in relation to the liability of credit hire companies to pay costs. Here we look at the decisions made in relation to each of the two cases under…
This is the first of several points that will look in detail at the Court of Appeal decision today in relation to the liability of credit hire companies to pay costs. This first post outlines the main findings. Later posts…
It is a difficult task to summarise the value of a life in one document. This is what happens when a schedule is drafted in a fatal claim. It is a task that has to be done carefully and with…
There is always room for another case about bundles on this site. It is a subject of endless fascination to most litigators, and endless frustration for many judges. Here we are looking at a case where the trial judge observed…
We are looking at a case where there was clear example of a failure to prove things. The claimants did not have sufficient evidence to satisfy the court it should make the order they were seeking. In fact the judgment…
For the second time this week we are looking at the issue of whether, or not, it was reasonable for a claimant’s solicitor to conclude that a matter should have been commenced outside the Low Value Personal Injury Portal. This…
A Practice Note issued issued earlier this month sets out changes to the practice of the Commercial Court in relation to the value which it will consider transferring claims to other courts. These changes take effect from the 1st July…
We are looking at a judgment from today which considers the “without prejudice” rule in some detail. In particular the steps a party should take if it wishes to argue that it should be able to rely on without prejudice…
We have a case here where a solicitor and KC involved in a case were heavily criticised by the trial judge. The solicitor attempted to appeal those findings and the Court of Appeal considered, among many other things, their Article…
How does one firm act on behalf of both sides in litigation? Entering judgment for a claimant and then applying, on behalf of the defendant, to have that judgment set aside? The easy answer is that it can’t. This…
The question of whether a case should have been started using the Low Value Protocol is often a difficult one. The lawyer for the claimant has to make a decision on this important issue without the benefit of any medical…
Problems occur when a claimant fails to take appropriate steps to ensure that the defendant is in fact living at the address where a claim form has served. This was the issue considered by the Court of Appeal today. The…
This series has now covered hundreds of examples where litigants have failed to prove their case. We are looking at another example here where a counterclaiming defendant adduced no substantive evidence of a claim said to be worth nearly £500,000. …
A number of people have been in touch asking whether the site can accommodate larger groups than those set out in the original plan (someone has asked whether there can be “limitless” numbers on a subscription). As a result of…
This is the third in this series looking at cases where misconduct has been alleged, or found, in the costs assessment process. We have here a bill of costs that was reduced substantially, which failed to beat a Part 36…
A common feature of litigation is the leaving of matters until the last minute. Be it service of the claim form, costs budgets or compliance with a court order. Here we have a case of a party delaying in complying…
This is the first day of this site as a subscription site and people have been very supportive. There have been very few teething problems. It will help if I address two issues: (i) how to add colleagues if you…
Artificial Intelligence and legal “research” has been very much in the news of late. I am grateful to my colleague Steven Turner for sending me an example where, upon being questioned, Chat GPT readily conceded that a case it had…
A new Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Guide has been published. It provides an essential guide to Court of Appeal cases. THE PURPOSE OF THE GUIDE “The main purpose of this Guide is to set out as clearly as…
Many, if not all, litigators will be familiar with the scenario whereby an estimate of costs is given and events develop so that the estimate is overtaken. This scenario was considered in the case we are considering today. An estimate…
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