Legal News

Turner v Coupland Cavendish Ltd [2025] EWHC 1605 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? The court held that Part 18 requests can be used in SOCA matters — namely the scrutiny of statutory solicitor bills of costs — and in connected objections to the solicitor-client 'cash account', which likewise arises under statute. Of note was the Appeal Court’s willingness to entertain the Part 18 point despite no formal Part 18 application having been made below. Reflecting the informality that characterises assessment proceedings, the Appeal Court observed that the parties had been led to understand that particular issues would be addressed under the court’s inherent case management jurisdiction ( CPR 3), rendering a formal application superfluous. That stance was in keeping with how the assessment had been managed. Further, where the solicitor incurs charges on the client’s behalf within the cash...

A trio of appeal justices unanimously threw out claims against executives from five leading mobile networks— EE, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica—accusing them of colluding to push Phones 4u into administration. At a May 2025 hearing, the administrators contended that High Court Judge Peter Roth had ‘misapplied key concepts of competition law’ in dismissing allegations that the networks had jointly decided to remove their products from the retailer. They maintained the 2014 decision to cease supplying Phones 4u was not taken independently, but stemmed from an unlawful conspiracy. All six grounds advanced were rejected on 11 July 2025. The Court of Appeal held that Roth J had ‘made no material error of law’. Central to the appeal was a lunch meeting between Ronan Dunne, then O2 chief executive, and his EE counterpart, Olaf Swantee, at a London hotel. Roth J...

Karpasitis v County Council [2025] EWCA Civ 788 What was the background? This case concerned a cyclist injured after hitting a hole in a grass verge and being unseated. The County Council sought to rely on a section 58 defence, contending that Mr Cooke had undertaken a walked inspection of the route two months earlier. A document containing GPS information from Mr Cooke’s vehicle on the inspection day was produced; it indicated a single stop lasting three minutes. Mr Cooke’s evidence included that, had he noticed the hole in the verge, he would have logged it as a defect demanding urgent attention. Shortly before trial, the County Council served a Civil Evidence Act Notice relating to his testimony. At trial, however, two witnesses for the County Council stated that Mr Cooke would have marked the defect as not needing urgent attention, directly...

Solicitor-client costs and CFA enforceability— Substance over form ( Richardson & Others v Slater & Gordon UK Ltd) Richardson and others v Slater & Gordon UK Ltd [2025] EWHC 1220 ( SCCO) What are the practical implications of this case? Although the obligation to provide an oral explanation of CFA terms was removed in 2005, this ruling highlights the ongoing value of a clear onboarding process to ensure clients grasp key or atypical CFA provisions, especially where they carry financial consequences. The court found it unnecessary for solicitors to deliver a detailed oral explanation of the workings of a CFA. That said, practitioners are likely to benefit from drawing attention to any unusual or significant clauses and preserving records of those conversations to deter later challenges. While informed consent is not a strict requirement for a CFA to be enforceable, its absence may bear upon the...

High Court Judge Simon Bryan authorised the aluminium conglomerate to serve the sanctioned ex-owner of English football club Chelsea FC via 'senior lawyers' at the London office of law firm Kobre & Kim LLP, while Rusal keeps tying Abramovich to its ongoing, intricate court fight against Vladimir Potanin, chief executive of PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel. Kobre & Kim confirmed in July 2022 that it had registered to act for Abramovich in the United States. Nathan Pillow KC of Essex Court Chambers, counsel to Rusal, stated in written submissions that his client was worried about whether it could validly serve papers on Abramovich at his recorded correspondence address, a riverside residence in the affluent Chelsea district of London......

In this issue Road traffic accidents Highway accidents Costs Regulation of healthcare professionals Coroner’s inquests Other PI and clinical negligence updates New content Lex Talk® PI & Clinical Negligence: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Lexis Nexis® Webinars Useful information Road traffic accidents Non-party costs orders in credit hire claims In a pivotal judgment, Tescher v Direct Accident Management Ltd; AXA Insurance UK Plc v Spectra Drive Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 733, the Court of Appeal set out clear guidance on when credit hire providers can face adverse costs despite the usual shelter of Qualified One‑ Way Costs Shifting ( QOCS) in unsuccessful personal injury claims. The court concluded that, where proceedings are issued in the claimant’s name but chiefly to advance the financial interests of a credit hire company, and litigation was a foreseeable outworking of the hire agreement, non‑party costs orders ( NPCOs) will often be justified. It stressed that liability for costs should be...

Right Support Management Ltd v The London Borough of Hillingdon [2025] EWHC 1680 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling signals a novel treatment of applications for relief from sanctions and is of lasting procedural interest, not least because it addresses the penalty in CPR 3.14. Owing to the harsh effect of that provision—which restricts a defaulting party, even if ultimately successful, to recovery of court fees only—the court on appeal determined that relief should have been granted, notwithstanding a cost budget filed and served more than two years late. The outcome turned on a suite of considerations, many directed to the conclusion that, in this setting, the delayed budget had only a modest effect on the litigation, the parties, or other users of the court. In practical terms, the appellate tribunal displaced the rules-based sanction in favour of a...

On 4 July 2025, the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed challenges by Apple, Visa, Mastercard and Sony to the validity of commonly used funding arrangements that calculate a funder’s fee or return as a multiple of their outlay or costs in class actions and class action claims, a ruling expected to lift spirits across a funding sector seriously rocked by the Supreme Court’s PACCAR judgment and its effects. Macfarlanes LLP partner Malcolm Hitching said the outcome is significant because it recognises that collective proceedings are a necessary part of the legal landscape, that consumers do need protection, and that the Competition Appeal Tribunal is there to provide that protection. He observed that, had the Court of Appeal reached the opposite view, it would have been difficult to see how a funder could actually provide funding to a collective group of...

Ferguson v Royal Borough of Greenwich [2025] Lexis Citation 1619 What are the practical implications of this case? It should be noted that the rules and practice directions considered were those in force before the major changes commencing on 1 October 2023, not the later regime. The judgment clarifies CPR 45.24, which permits the court to confine costs to fixed ‘ Portal costs’ ( CPR 45.18 and 45.19) where a claimant unreasonably breaches the relevant Protocol; yet it was held inapplicable here. The court’s central rationale was that, even had the claimant initially followed the EL/ PL Pre- Action Protocol for Low Value Claims, the case would inevitably have exited the Portal because of the defendant’s conduct, namely: denial of liability; allegations of contributory negligence; and failure to make any offers to...

Tescher v Direct Accident Management Ltd; AXA Insurance UK Plc v Spectra Drive Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 733 What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling represents a significant reset in the credit hire arena, particularly for practitioners operating in the post- QOCS landscape. The Court of Appeal has affirmed a straightforward, practical rule: where the underlying economics show a credit hire company stands to gain from proceedings, especially where litigation is the only viable means of recovering hire charges, that non-party may face adverse costs if the claim does not succeed. For defendants, this expands the scope to seek non-party costs orders, notably in matters where personal injury claims are discontinued but the true impetus for proceedings is the commercial recovery of hire charges. The court stressed that proof of overt control is unnecessary; latent or structural influence arising from the hire...

The County Court at London ultimately upheld an appeal against a ruling that refused deduction of an ATE premium from a child claimant’s compensation following a successful personal injury case. In Duffield (a minor, by his mother and litigation friend Ms Sandra Matuleviciute) v WM Morrison Supermarkets Ltd [2025] Lexis Citation 1723, the claimant’s solicitors challenged the reduction of the success fee and the refusal to permit the ATE premium to be taken from the child’s award. The claim resolved for £2,250, approved by DDJ Walton. The solicitors asked the court to approve a £450 success fee together with an ATE premium of £675, amounting to 50% of the Claimant’s damages. The court sanctioned a lower success fee but rejected the ATE in full. The appeal proceeded without opposition and was unopposed. HHJ Monty KC noted concern that the approach taken by the DDJ was not...

Mums for Lungs and Client Earth asked High Court Judge Adam Constable to order the removal of redactions applied to papers filed in the protracted litigation arising from the 2015 ‘ Dieselgate’ scandal. They said doing so would serve the public interest by helping people understand whether the carmakers acted unlawfully. The 7 July 2025 hearing examined public access to documents relied upon in the case and possible limits on access to material the manufacturers insist is confidential. The organisations, which were recently granted permission to intervene, argued in written submissions that the public interest would be advanced by ensuring redactions do not stop UK regulators from obtaining the information needed to start investigations or implement policy steps against the car companies. Motorists further urged Judge Constable to reject the car manufacturers’ claims to confidentiality over documents that should be...

Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr Addressing Mansion House in London on 2 July 2025, Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr urged stringent supervision so that lawyers, particularly newcomers at the start of their careers, recognise the hazards of deploying AI. She also drew attention to instances where practitioners had relied on fabricated court judgments in the UK. She warned that the legal profession must stay perpetually vigilant and resolute in how it embraces the use of AI......

Announcing the Plan Presenting the Plan, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, remarked: ‘ The idea is straightforward: care should be provided as near as possible—digital by default, in a patient’s home where feasible, in a neighbourhood health centre when required, and in a hospital if necessary.’ In recent months there has been a flurry of groundbreaking activity, including government moves to set out its ‘3 big shifts’, dissolve NHS England, reshape integrated care boards, and sharply reduce non-clinical spending and workforce; NHS organisations have been told to press on with this—so it has, at points, been easy to overlook that the overarching plan itself was not yet published. Now it is, and although the finer points of delivery are still being developed, we have clearer direction and the opportunity for system leaders to begin taking steps forward to...

Justice Julian Flaux, writing for the Court of Appeal, said the assertion by the companies that revised arrangements agreed by class representatives and litigation funders were still damage-based agreements ( DBAs) and therefore unenforceable in collective proceedings “is unsustainable”. The four connected appeals arose from the UK Supreme Court’s landmark 2023 ruling, PACCAR, which concluded that many litigation funding agreements ( LFAs) supporting large claims are DBAs and cannot be enforced unless they meet the regulations... Following that judgment, funders and class representatives moved swiftly to renegotiate and reshape their terms. At a hearing in June, the appellants contended that—even with modifications to the funding models—the financial arrangements continued to be DBAs because they included a cap on the sums that could be recovered......

'statutory consultation' District Court Judge Kate Thomas will tell the Court of Appeal that 'statutory consultation', commonly called secret soundings, whereby serving judges submit unnamed assessments of a candidate's suitability, is defective and sustains an 'old boys' network' within the judiciary. Detractors, among them the Law Society, the Society of Asian Lawyers and the Society of Black Lawyers, say the mechanism continues to undermine attempts to broaden representation on the bench. Nevertheless, the Judicial Appointments Commission has, to date, still kept those confidential references in place for would-be judges. Retired judge Clare Norris, president of the GMB trade union's judicial arm, described Thomas's claim as 'a direct challenge' to a set-up that she alleged lets senior judges skew the appointments system......

PI & Clinical Negligence weekly highlights—3 July 2025 In this issue: Key PI and clinical negligence news Road traffic accidents Accidents on the highway Clinical negligence Damages Costs and funding New Content New Book Lex Talk® PI & Clinical Negligence: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Lexis Nexis® Webinars Useful information Key PI and clinical negligence news Damages Claims Pilot under CPR PD 51ZB—updated guidance: HM Courts and Tribunals Service has revised the Damages Claims Portal guidance covering the issue-to-response stage for claims under CPR PD 51ZB. The update aligns with recent DCP features, enabling parties to raise queries within the portal and to tell the court via the DCP when a claim has settled or been discontinued. See: LNB News 26/06/2025 3. Criminal and Civil Legal Aid (...

MH Site Maintenance Services Ltd and another company v Watson [2025] EWCA Civ 775 What are the practical implications of this case? Insurers, and the solicitors representing them, will recognise the recurring problem: multiple requests for details, evidence, or progress updates go unanswered or are simply ignored, with the result that the defendant remains in the dark about the case it must confront, even years after promptly admitting liability. A further, and troubling, hallmark of these matters is their tendency to inflate in value, having been ‘incubated’ under the Protocol while a stay persists for months, or even years, as the claimant continues to secure medical evidence to strengthen their position. It is expected that this ruling sends a firm message to claimants that the prevailing habit of delay, coupled with a presumed right to a stay that can be rolled over time and again...

In this issue: Road traffic accidents Occupational disease Sports injuries Clinical negligence Costs AI and legal technology developments in litigation Other PI and clinical negligence news Lex Talk®PI & Clinical Negligence: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Lexis Nexis® Webinars Useful information Road traffic accidents Court of Appeal enforces compliance with the pre-action protocol for low value road traffic accident claims In a second appeal, the Court of Appeal in MH Site Maintenance Services Ltd v Watson [2025] EWCA Civ 775 assessed whether it could issue case management directions for claims within the Pre- Action Protocol ( PAP) for Low Value Road Traffic Accident ( RTA) Claims where protective Part 8 proceedings had been brought to guard against a limitation defence. A line of authorities recognises the general overlap between the court’s...

Lawyers are increasingly alert to the threat posed by AI-produced material that can be virtually indistinguishable from genuine evidence. They also recognise that AI is being deployed to doctor videos and images, creating convincing fabrications. Joel Seager, a partner at Fladgate LLP, observed that technology moves so quickly it can be exploited across the disputes landscape to disrupt any stage of proceedings. He added that any role involving the presentation of evidence leaves room for bad-faith conduct, and that whenever testimony is required, there is scope to conjure an almost fictitious person to speak in someone’s place. The risks were starkly shown in a High Court decision on 6 June, which referred a barrister and a solicitor to their regulators after two matters in which numerous case law citations were submitted that either did not exist or contained invented passages. Judge Victoria Sharp wrote that...