Legal News

Williams and another (as the Joint Administrators of Signature Living Residential Ltd) v Alter Domus Trustees ( UK) Ltd (formerly Cortland Trustees Ltd) [2023] EWHC 1820 ( Ch), [2023] All ER ( D) 94 ( Jul) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision offers a clear demonstration of how a purchaser’s equitable lien over property can sit alongside, and potentially compete with, other forms of security. The court explores key aspects of equitable liens in the setting of buyers of off-plan apartments, including whether each purchaser’s lien is geographically confined to the specific footprint of the relevant flat. These points are worked through by reference to the different purchasers involved, providing practical guidance on scope and priority issues. The judgment also examines, from para 38, what counts as a ‘signature’ for the purposes of LP( MP) A 1989, s 2. Recent...

Mc Culloch and others v Forth Valley Health Board ( Scotland) [2023] UKSC 26 What are the practical implications of this case? In Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] AC 1430, the Supreme Court confirmed that doctors must take reasonable care to make sure patients are told about any material risks of a recommended treatment, as well as any reasonable alternative or variant treatments. It explained that the materiality of a risk is assessed, among other things, by asking whether a reasonable patient would attach importance to it. In Mc Culloch the Supreme Court clarifies that deciding whether an alternative is a ‘reasonable’ option lies within professional medical judgment, and is therefore determined by the Bolam approach—namely the test in Hunter v Hanley 1955 SC 200 and Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee [1957] 1 WLR 582. The result is that patient choice has...

Professional indemnity claims Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE reported that, across 93,000 professional indemnity claims handled worldwide between 2002 and 2022, a ‘large loss event’ referred to any claim above €1m. Of the 477 large losses recorded, 30% related to solicitors and lawyers. Construction professionals — including surveyors, architects, and conveyancing solicitors — accounted for 27%. Insurance brokers and agents represented a further 22%. Released on 11 July 2023, these results form part of Allianz’s review into patterns influencing professional indemnity insurance claims activity. Notable drivers of risk included cybercrime, data loss, and shifts in legislation associated with building safety. Cybercrime Data loss Evolving rules tied to building safety Professional indemnity insurance helps protect practitioners and their firms against allegations of financial loss......

Facts Jackie Maguire, aged 52, had Down’s syndrome, a moderate learning disability, and cyclothymic personality disorder. She had resided in the care home from 1993. On 22 February 2017, she tragically died due to pneumonia, a perforated gastric ulcer, and peritonitis. After hearing the inquest evidence, the coroner ruled that the enhanced procedural obligation under Article 2 ECHR was not engaged, so there was neither a requirement nor a power to instruct the jury to reach an expanded conclusion. The jury therefore returned a brief Jamieson-style finding of natural causes. Court of Appeal Hill Dickinson’s article ' R ( Muriel Maguire) v HM Senior Coroner for Blackpool and Fylde [2019] EWHC 1232' explains the Court of Appeal’s view that her ‘total dependence’ under Do LS was not equivalent to state detention. It further confirms that a series of individual mistakes by healthcare...

According to the Ministry of Justice ( Mo J), Alex Chalk, the UK’s Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, will collaborate with G7 Justice Ministers to advocate actively for the rule of law......

On 1 June 2023, the European Commission released a refreshed HCG to give clearer guidance to rivals seeking to collaborate, including areas not covered by the 2012 HCG. A new strand targets the telecommunications sector and examines network sharing agreements ( NSAs). This analysis outlines the core points of the update and its implications for the telecommunications industry. Types of cooperation covered by the new guidance Cooperation between competitors is central to the telecommunications industry, as operators rely on one another to secure seamless connectivity between networks and often work together to extend coverage and raise service quality. NSAs are among the most common collaboration models in mobile telecommunications. They typically entail the joint deployment and sharing of mobile network infrastructure and, at times, frequency bands between mobile network operators ( MNOs). NSAs range from simpler cooperation, such as sharing passive network...

What are the key provisions of The Russia ( Sanctions) ( EU Exit) ( Amendment) ( No 3) Regulations 2023? The Russia ( Sanctions) ( EU Exit) ( Amendment) ( No 3) Regulations 2023, SI 2023/713, revise the Russia ( Sanctions) ( EU Exit) Regulations 2019, SI 2009/855 (the Russia Regulations). Since September 2022, the UK has sought to sever Russia’s access to a range of professional services, and these latest steps reinforce the sanctions introduced over the past year. The updated trade measures prohibit any person from directly or indirectly supplying “legal advisory services” to a non- UK person where the advice relates to, or is connected with, conduct that would be prohibited by the Russia Regulations if carried out by a UK person or within the UK. In effect, UK lawyers are barred from advising Russian businesses on certain...

On 28 June 2023, the FCA stated that the insurer must scrutinise records in full spanning from September 2017 through to August 2022. Direct Line was instructed to offer claimants ‘appropriate redress’ where it identifies policyholders who have been given unfairly low settlements. The regulator did not reveal what triggered its intervention at that time. In December 2022, the FCA said it was aware that insurers were undervaluing motor insurance payouts for customers whose vehicles had been written off. A Direct Line spokesperson said the firm had already calculated the financial impact of the redress and had adjusted its......

Raystra Healthcare Ltd v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 496 ( TC) HMRC issued an assessment to claw back amounts the taxpayer company had obtained under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ( CJRS) for six employees who were not shown on an RTI submission before the 19 March 2020 deadline. A software upgrade to the company’s RTI system in November 2019 inadvertently left it in ‘test’ mode, with the result that RTI returns stopped being sent from that date until HMRC informed the company of the fault on 24 April 2020. On receiving that notification, the company filed the outstanding RTI information the same day, and later went on to apply for, and receive, payments under the CJRS. The central issue advanced in the company’s appeal was that, absent the software problem, payments of earnings to the six affected employees would have been included in......

What is embodied carbon and why is it important? There is no single, settled definition of ‘embodied carbon’ in planning legislation or policy. In general, it refers to the greenhouse gas emissions tied to constructing a building—and, depending on the assessment’s scope, dismantling it at end of life—as opposed to the ‘operational carbon’ arising from the building’s use. Together, embodied and operational carbon contribute to a building’s whole‑life carbon emissions. Although progress is still required, the real estate industry has made notable advances in cutting operational carbon, from energy‑efficient lighting to on‑site solar PV, which means embodied carbon is becoming relatively more significant. While embodied carbon has not historically received the same attention as operational carbon, there is now broad recognition that it must be rigorously measured and assessed if the built environment is to support the government’s legally binding objective of reaching net zero by...

The government is seeking the right equivalence arrangements as central to keeping the UK competitive, yet none have been concluded and no timelines set. As a result, it faces a steep challenge in identifying sufficient similarity between regulatory regimes in several major markets—and, crucially, persuading them to grant equivalence in return. According to Nathaniel Lalone, a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in London, reciprocal equivalence would effectively enlarge the UK's ‘domestic’ market to cover other equivalent jurisdictions. UK firms could then reach a far broader base of customers and users, lifting revenues and intensifying rivalry across a bigger field of market participants. An accord with the EU looks tough: its markets in cryptoassets regime, or ‘ Mi CA’, due to take effect in 2024, does not permit it. Those rules—well ahead of the UK's—allow equivalence to be revisited only after four years....

What are the main provisions of the Bill? The Bill, laid before the House of Commons on 17 May 2023, contains a substantial suite of reforms. The principal measures are: Abolishing section 21 notices and ending assured shorthold tenancies: Section 21 notices will be removed, so in future every claim for possession must rely on grounds under section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 ( HA 1988). With HA 1988, s 21 falling away, assured shorthold tenancies ( ASTs) will also cease (subject to any transitional arrangements), meaning all lettings will be assured tenancies. Tenancy deposit protection, a cornerstone of the present AST framework, will remain in force; where a landlord fails to meet the deposit requirements, service of a valid section 8 notice will be barred for almost all grounds. Ending fixed-term tenancies: Fixed terms will be prohibited, with all tenancies becoming periodic. Each period must be...

Stoute and another v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 523 What are the practical implications of this case? Applications for interim injunctions in claims like misuse of private information are a familiar feature of the media and communications list. This decision sets out the statutory framework and the leading European and domestic authorities on privacy, addressing the balancing act between rights under Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights when determining whether a reasonable expectation of privacy exists, with a particular emphasis on situations where photographs are taken in public following paparazzi targeting. It also explores the different thresholds for obtaining interim relief before and after publication, indicating that pre-publication orders are more readily achieved, as earlier publications may properly be treated as a relevant, albeit not conclusive, factor when evaluating the likelihood that further...

Re Avanti Communications Ltd (in administration) [2023] EWHC 940 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Avanti is poised to carry three major consequences for restructuring lawyers, insolvency litigators, and finance lawyers. First, the ruling lowers the bar for taking fixed security, notably over fixed assets. It confirms that the Spectrum analysis is nuanced, and that absolute control is not a prerequisite for a fixed charge. The assets in Avanti were ‘fixed’ income‑producing capital assets rather than receivables or stock‑in‑trade, leaving charges over such property, in particular, less susceptible to recharacterisation. Second, although the facility documentation was intricate, it drew on Loan Market Association ( LMA) templates. Those contracts included permissions for the debtor to dispose of assets where (among other conditions) proceeds were paid through a creditor ‘waterfall’, or where assets had become obsolete. Avanti confirms that these...

Trafalgar Multi Asset Trading Company Ltd (in liquidation) v Hadley and others [2023] EWHC 1184 ( Ch), [2023] All ER ( D) 80 ( May) What are the practical implications of this case? Echoing Financial Conduct Authority v Avocade Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 1206 and Adams v Options UK Personal Pensions LLP [2021] EWCA Civ 474, this dispute concerns losses borne by pension savers after their transferred monies were placed into inappropriate, high‑risk assets. A notable distinction here is that the claimant was the corporate vehicle through which the savers’ funds were invested, acting by its liquidators. The claim may ultimately enable some recovery of pension savings without individual members, or the FCA, having to commence proceedings. The relevant events date from 2014 to 2016, and it is hoped that changes since then have curtailed the likelihood of transfers into comparable...

English court orders crypto exchange to transfer assets into England and Wales to facilitate enforcement of judgment ( Joseph Keen Shing Law v Persons Unknown & Huobi Global Limited) Joseph Keen Shing Law v Persons unknown and Huobi Global Limited [2023] Lexis Citation 820 What is the impact of the decision? Huobi did not agree to the order, nor did it challenge it. The court concluded that exceptional circumstances justified granting the relief: although the exchange was assisting the claimant to stop the other defendants (who had defrauded the claimant) from accessing their accounts, the position could shift to the claimant’s disadvantage, and the court would have no control over Huobi because it is based outside England and Wales. This ruling (handed down in January but only recently released) predates Piroozzadeh v Persons Unknown and others [2023] EWHC 1024 ( Ch), where the High Court set aside an...

Berlin’s Data Protection Authority ( DPA) has imposed a €300,000 penalty on a Berlin-based bank for three breaches of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679......

Murphy v HMRC [2023] EWCA Civ 497 In this case, a non-resident trust distributed over £9m to beneficiaries resident in the UK. The trustees asked HMRC to confirm that, under ESC B18 (1999), those beneficiaries could claim credit for UK income tax previously paid on the trust’s income, whether that income arose within the preceding six years or over a longer span. HMRC accepted the claim for six years (and appears to have allowed one earlier year by mistake) but rejected the balance as it related to earlier periods. The beneficiaries therefore issued judicial review proceedings to seek recognition of their right to credit for tax the trust had paid in those earlier years. ESC B18 seeks to remedy a legislative anomaly (originally in sections 686–687, 809 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act)......

Rancom Security Ltd v Girling and others [2023] EWHC 1115 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment has two strands—a refresher on essential legal principles and a pragmatic guide for disputes practitioners, notably those pursuing civil fraud or dishonesty claims, when building a case. Conflicting evidence Beyond its survey of principle, the court offers a detailed account of how it confronts a routine but difficult problem: conflicting evidence. It sets out the framework for evaluating changing accounts, gaps in proof, defects in disclosure, and the way witness statements and the litigation process can shape witnesses' recollections. The judgment also illustrates the courts' approach to weighing credibility and drawing adverse inferences. While the findings inevitably turn on the facts, and arose within a dishonesty context, the court's treatment of these topics has broader resonance for any disputes lawyer. The sheer range of matters the judge...

R (on the application of British Gas Trading Ltd) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [2023] EWHC 737 ( Admin) Key points The court underscored the need for stringent time limits in judicial review to safeguard the public interest in sound administration Whilst acknowledging the Administrative Court is ordinarily not the forum for resolving factual disputes, it observed that judicial review procedures are sufficiently adaptable to deal with such issues where necessary The court affirmed that, in commercial settings where decision-makers hold particular expertise, the Administrative Court will apply a light-touch standard of review Background In 2021, Bulb, an electricity and gas supplier with roughly 1.5 million customers, faced severe financial strain. On 24 November 2021, the High Court made an Energy Supply Company Administration Order and appointed Joint Energy Administrators ( JEAs). The JEAs commenced a sale process for Bulb’s business. All three...