It seems that every day brings a news report of corporate wrongdoing or control failures somewhere in the world – rogue traders, corruption, fraud, tax evasion, price fixing, environmental disasters and export control issues.
In this article, we review case law from South Australia Asset Management Company Ltd v York Montague Ltd [1997] to Rubenstein v HSBC Bank Plc [2011] to examine the current approach to assessing loss in economically volatile times. Assessing recoverable loss in tort claims is sometimes a knotty problem. Breach of a duty of care can …
Continue reading “Assessing recovery of loss in tort claims during an economic downturn”
On 18 October 2011 the Energy Act 2011 (the Act) received royal assent and passed into law, less than a year after it was introduced to the House of Lords on 9 December 2010.
Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS), are open-ended, regulated investment funds. Since their inception in 1985, UCITS have been regulated by Directive 85/611/EEC, known as UCITS I. UCITS I has been substantially amended several times, most importantly by Directive 2001/107/EC and Directive 2001/108/EC, these amendments generally being known as UCITS III.
Where two large businesses contract, there is an assumption that they appreciate the consequences of the contractual wording adopted. In such circumstances courts tend to give effect to the literal meaning of those terms in a contract. In Gesner Investments Ltd v Bombardier Inc [2011] the Court of Appeal was asked to interpret the terms …
Continue reading “Interpreting commercial contracts: a plane task?”
The judgment of the UK Supreme Court in the case of AXA General Insurance Ltd & ors v The Lord Advocate & ors [2011], issued on 12 October 2011, marks the end of a long and winding litigation in which all manner of questions of Scottish public and administrative law have been examined. These include …
Continue reading “AXA ruling raises as many questions as it answers”
The UK Coalition’s programme for government set out that deficit reduction, and continuing to ensure economic recovery were the most urgent issues facing Britain. It then started on a programme to cut public spending. One of the results has been a plethora of legal challenges, directed both against central government and against local government. Typically, …
In-house lawyers handling complex product liability litigation in the US are likely to have to deal with extensive discovery exercises. The plethora of electronic devices used by businesses these days means that costs of electronic discovery (e-discovery) can be significant and substantial resources are required to manage the process.
Ever wondered why that obviously fake, self-righteous review of your company’s service, sits stubbornly underneath your carefully manicured LinkedIn page? Or why that obscure blog attacking your CEO sits firmly on page one of your company’s Google search? Welcome to the murky world of online reputation warfare. Since the dawn of the online search engine, …
Continue reading “How to deal with online conspirators: a sticky problem ”
While we’re all accustomed to accusations of ‘smear campaigns’ and underhand tactics being bandied about in the political arena, we are seeing more examples of both companies and private individuals becoming the victims of such campaigns. They are often well-organised, well-funded, multi-jurisdictional in reach and with the express aim of causing maximum damage to the …
Continue reading “The law of conspiracy: dirty tricks, corporate rivals and brand attacks”
In comparison with some other countries, the English court system operates relatively quickly. However, litigation in this jurisdiction still takes time. As a very rough guideline, and depending on the division where proceedings are issued, a commercial dispute of any complexity is likely to take 12-18 months to reach trial (from the date when proceedings …
Ever since the 1980s, when the Domain name system was introduced, opportunistic entrepreneurs have conducted a profitable trade in domain names – a domain name being the alpha-numeric string that follows the ‘@’ in an email address and the ‘www’ in a web address. This article provides an update on domain name complaints and valuable …