Litigation/Dispute Resolution

Costs disputes worth more than £100,000 should be subject to compulsory adjudication, the judge who leads on costs issues in the Court of Appeal has said.

There should be mandatory regulation of the litigation funding industry by the Financial Conduct Authority, the director of regulation and policy at the Legal Services Board said yesterday.

More than half of professional indemnity cases issued in the High Court over the past five years were against solicitors, according to new figures.

Two former partners of a law firm did not vary their 50/50 partnership after it was set up so that one would be in sole control, the High Court has ruled.

The Arbitration Act received Royal Assent yesterday, with the government declaring it would keep the UK “ahead of the rest” and practitioners welcoming the new law.

The High Court is to reconsider its intention to allow a Manchester law firm to restrain a claims provider from presenting a winding-up petition.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal last week approved the £200m settlement of former solicitor Walter Merricks with Mastercard, in a case once valued at £14bn.

Barristers doing government work will see a 25% increase in rates from 1 April, in some cases the first rise since the panels were first introduced in 1997.

The unsuccessful claimant in the first opt-out collective action decided by the Competition Appeal Tribunal has been ordered to make an interim costs payment of £14m.

There needs to be a new early disposal mechanism for SLAPPs, academics have said, describing existing anti-SLAPP provisions as “a false dawn that will not address the problem”.

Claimant lawyers yesterday celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to reject HM Treasury’s bid to intervene in the motor finance appeal.

A barrister was not negligent in his advice over possession proceedings and the law centre that instructed him was entitled to rely on his expertise, the High Court has ruled.

Green industrialist Dale Vince is seeking an injunction to stop a Conservative peer he is suing for libel from publishing his lawyer’s response to the letter before action on the grounds that it too is defamatory.

The government’s bid to intervene in the Supreme Court hearing on the motor finance appeals breaches the constitutional separation of powers, solicitors for two of the claimants have argued.

Only one in 10 law firms handling financial services mis-selling matters will have to pay the new £250 case fee to the Financial Ombudsman Service, it has estimated.