Revised litigation funding agreements piling up at Court of Appeal – Legal Futures

Posted March 12th, 2024 in agreements, appeals, champerty, competition, news by tracey

‘The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has granted permission for another rewritten litigation funding agreement (LFA) to go before the Court of Appeal.’

Full Story

Legal Futures, 12th March 2024

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Court of Appeal to rule on first post-PACCAR funding agreement – Legal Futures

‘The Court of Appeal is set to rule on whether a litigation funding agreement (LFA) that was amended to take account of the Supreme Court ruling in PACCAR is valid.’

Full Story

Legal Futures, 23rd January 2024

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Severance Denied: Diag Human v Volterra Fietta [; A Potential Public Policy Warning for Litigation Funders – Gatehouse Chambers

Posted November 21st, 2023 in agreements, chambers articles, champerty, enforcement, fees, news, remuneration, solicitors by sally

‘The Court of Appeal has held that the severance of terms rendering a CFA unenforceable was not available to solicitors on public policy grounds and that consequently their clients were entitled to the return of sums paid on account. The decision in Diag Human v Volterra Fietta will ring alarm bells for litigation funders who might be contemplating launching similar arguments as a consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision in R (on the application of PACCAR) v Competition Appeal Tribunal.’

Full Story

Gatehouse Chambers, 10th October 2023

Source: gatehouselaw.co.uk

‘Shockwaves’ as Supreme Court rules litigation funding deals unenforceable – Law Society’s Gazette

‘Litigation funders will have to redraft the terms of their agreements following a widely awaited ruling by the Supreme Court this morning. In PACCAR Inc & Ors v Competition Appeal Tribunal & Ors, four out of five justices ruled that such agreements fall within the statutory definition of damages-based agreements (DBAs). As they had been entered in to without satisfying conditions for DBAs, they were therefore unenforceable.’

Full Story

Law Society's Gazette, 26th July 2023

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Litigation funding agreements are DBAs, Supreme Court rules – Legal Futures

‘Agreements with third-party litigation funders are damages-based agreements (DBAs), the Supreme Court said today in a ruling likely to invalidate almost all existing arrangements.’

Full Story

Legal Futures, 26th July 2023

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

New Judgment: R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28 – UKSC Blog

‘This appeal concerns a matter of statutory interpretation in the context of litigation funding. Litigation funding involves the agreement of a third party (with no prior connection to the litigation) to finance all or part of the legal costs of certain litigation, in return for a percentage of any damages recovered should the funded litigant be successful. In particular, this appeal concerns whether each of the agreements to provide this funding, known as litigation funding agreements (“LFAs”), constitute a “damages-based agreement” (“DBA”), a term given a specific definition by statute. In order to be lawful and enforceable a DBA has to satisfy certain conditions. The LFAs have been entered into without satisfying those conditions, so the question whether they constitute DBAs is critical for their enforceability.’

Full Story

UKSC Blog, 26th July 2023

Source: ukscblog.com

Regulator criticises two supermarket giants over unlawful anti-competitive land agreements – Local Government Lawyer

Posted June 15th, 2023 in agreements, competition, markets, news by sally

‘The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has secured agreements from Sainsbury’s and Asda to stop using unlawful anti-competitive land agreements that prevent competitors from establishing stores near to their own supermarkets.’

Full Story

Local Government Lawyer, 14th June 2023

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

On the naughty step – a ‘rising star’ of Barking – Nearly Legal

‘Sadly, it appears that it is necessary to revive the long lapsed tradition of the Nearly Legal Naughty Step post.

We have encountered a number of councils putting, or trying to put, damn silly clauses in their tenancy agreements for secure tenants, and then threatening to evict tenants who breach these damn silly clauses. There was Sandwell silencing tenants, for example (and they were not alone in trying to include such a clause). And there was the spectacle of Wandsworth attempting to impose a clause forbidding the tenant, their household, or their visitors from behaving badly anywhere in the whole borough, on pain of eviction. That one – which is all too relevant for what follows – ended in humiliation for Wandsworth when they actually tried to use it.’

Full Story

Nearly Legal, 6th June 2023

Source: nearlylegal.co.uk

Master of rolls questions ‘impenetrable’ client documents – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted October 6th, 2022 in agreements, fees, legal language, news, personal injuries, solicitors by sally

‘The ability of lay clients to understand the Law Society’s model conditional fee agreement was questioned by three of the most senior judges in England and Wales yesterday in a much-awaited Court of Appeal hearing.’

Full Story

Law Society's Gazette, 5th October 2022

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Law Commission seeks ban on discrimination in appointing arbitrators – Legal Futures

‘Arbitration agreements requiring that the arbitrator be a “commercial man” or otherwise specifying a protected characteristic will be unenforceable under Law Commission proposals published today.’

Full Story

Legal Futures, 22nd September 2022

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

High Court upholds ruling that $3m CFA is unforceable – Legal Futures

Posted August 2nd, 2022 in agreements, enforcement, fees, law firms, news, repayment by tracey

‘The High Court has upheld a decision that a law firm which charged its client nearly $3m under an unenforceable conditional fee agreement (CFA) has to repay the money.’

Full Story

Legal Futures, 2nd August 2022

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Kenneth A. Armstrong: From the Shadow of Hierarchy to the Shadow of Competition – Common Frameworks and the Disciplining of Divergence – UK Constitutional Law Association

Posted December 16th, 2021 in agreements, brexit, EC law, international relations, markets, news by sally

‘This time last year, the controversial United Kingdom Internal Market Bill was ping-ponging between the Commons and Lords. A key point of contention concerned the relationship between the ‘market access’ principles now enshrined in the Act – the mutual recognition and non-discrimination principles – and future exercises of devolved rule-making. Should post-Brexit internal regulatory divergence be legally disciplined by a strong version of the mutual recognition principle or insulated from such forces? As I explained in a contribution to this blog a year ago, a partial answer can be found in Sections 10(2) and 18(3) of the Act which allows the Secretary of State, by regulations, to amend Schedule 1 (goods) and Schedule 2 (services) to exclude the outcome of a ‘common framework agreement’ from the scope of application of the market access principles. The aim of this new post is to consider how this power is likely to work in light of a written ministerial statement made on 9 December 2021 setting out the mechanism for its implementation.’

Full Story

UK Constitutional Law Association, 15th December 2021

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org

Sex Pistols win legal fight against Johnny Rotten over songs – The Guardian

Posted August 24th, 2021 in agreements, artistic works, consent, licensing, media, news by sally

‘The former Sex Pistols frontman, Johnny Rotten, has lost a high court attempt to block the punk band’s songs from being used in a forthcoming drama series.’

Full Story

The Guardian, 23rd August 2021

Source: www.theguardian.com

A new ABPI Code for 2021 – Mills & Reeve

Posted June 8th, 2021 in agreements, codes of practice, medicines, news by sally

‘The 2021 version of the ABPI Code will come into effect on 1 July. This brings in important changes to the self-regulatory system for the UK pharma industry. It amounts to the most substantial refresh of the Code since the 1990s.’

Full Story

Mills & Reeve, 4th June 2021

Source: www.mills-reeve.com

The environmental implications of the Brexit deal – UK Human Rights Blog

‘Most UK people’s 2020 Christmas eves were cheered by the news that we had some sort of Brexit deal – here, in all its majesty. Given the deadline for no deal, some deal, however thin, was a good deal better than nothing, with the ill-tempered chaos between the UK and a major trading partner which would have followed from the latter.’

Full Story

UK Human Rights Blog, 18th January 2021

Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com

Court of Appeal upholds ruling that council overcharged tenants for water – Local Government Lawyer

Posted October 27th, 2020 in agreements, appeals, interpretation, landlord & tenant, local government, news, water by sally

‘The Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames has lost its appeal to the Court of Appeal over a High Court ruling that it overcharged tenants for water.’

Full Story

Local Government Lawyer, 27th October 2020

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Macquarie Global Infrastructure Funds 2 Sarl v Rodino – Blackstone Chambers

Posted August 13th, 2020 in agreements, jurisdiction, news, shareholders by sally

‘The Commercial Court (Jacobs J) has dismissed applications to dispute the English Court’s jurisdiction in respect of claims for damages and declarations of non-liability in respect of proceedings brought by the Defendants in Luxembourg claiming damages in excess of €68 million. The decision illustrates the English Court’s commercially-minded approach to the construction of exclusive jurisdiction clauses and to the provisions of the Brussels I Recast Regulation that confer priority on courts seised under those clauses.

Full Story

Blackstone Chambers, 6th August 2020

Source: www.blackstonechambers.com

Residential property – the complications of renting to a healthcare company to enable care of an individual – Hardwicke Chambers

Posted May 29th, 2020 in agreements, care homes, landlord & tenant, news by sally

‘A healthcare company intends to rent a residential property for permitted officers or employees to occupy, on a weekly rota basis. However, an individual who is neither an officer nor an employee of the company (but is a person who will be cared for by the officers or employees) will live at the property, together with the officers or employees who are “on duty”. What will be the status of the individual occupier and the employees or officers if the (non-AST) tenancy agreement is terminated?’

Full Story

Hardwicke Chambers, 29th May 2020

Source: hardwicke.co.uk

NDAs in spotlight as Court of Appeal gags newspaper – Law Society’s Gazette

‘A Court of Appeal ruling barring the publication of allegations that a ‘leading businessman’ sexually harassed and racially abused employees has re-ignited the debate over the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in settlements. In ABC and others v Telegraph Media Group, Sir Terence Etherton, Lord Justice Underhill and Lord Justice Henderson granted a temporary injunction preventing the Telegraph from publishing what the newspaper says is the result of eight months of investigation into the behaviour of an individual identified as ‘ABC’.’

Full Story

Law Society's Gazette, 24th October 2018

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

High Court finds oral agreement to pay solicitor’s fees – Legal Futures

Posted September 25th, 2018 in agreements, fees, news, solicitors by sally

‘The High Court has found there was an oral agreement between a solicitor and the son-in-law of a client that the latter would cover his fees, which in the end totalled £330,000.’

Full Story

Legal Futures, 25th September 2018

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk