As authorities take unprecedented measures to help control the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), working from home using online technologies has become an abrupt but necessary fact of life for many. Adaption to disruption is becoming the new normal and the UK courts are no exception. Continue reading
Legal professional privilege (LPP) is once again in the headlines, following a series of recent high profile decisions. In January 2020, the Court of Appeal in Raiffeisen Bank International AG v Asia Coal Energy Ventures Ltd rejected an attempt to circumvent LPP by a party that alleged LPP had been waived. Then in February, the Court of Appeal in Sports Direct International Plc v Financial Reporting Council rejected an attempt to extend an exception to LPP and reaffirmed that where LPP applies, it can only be overridden in very limited circumstances where there is express statutory authority demonstrating Parliament’s intention to do so. More recently, in March, the High Court in Addlesee v Dentons Europe LLP reaffirmed that fraud is one of the very limited number of exceptions that permit the court to order disclosure of materials that would otherwise have been protected by LPP. Continue reading
In Boas and others v Aventure International Ltd, HHJ Hodge QC, sitting as a section 9 High Court judge, allowed an appeal against a recorder’s county court judgment about the exact location of a disputed boundary, in rare circumstances where the recorder had failed to consider the full effect of specific and clear photographic evidence, and further failed to outline the correct factual implications from that evidence. The High Court was therefore left to examine the principles surrounding appeals against a judge’s findings of fact. Continue reading