Commercial litigation podcast series – Episode 22: General update

In this 22nd episode of our series of commercial litigation update podcasts, we look at some recent developments relating to enforcement of judgments, litigation funding and class actions as well as an important Court of Appeal decision on ADR that came out in late November, and a couple of interesting recent decisions on exclusion clauses and the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

This episode is hosted by Maura McIntosh, a professional support consultant in our litigation team, who is joined by Alex Oddy, a disputes partner, and Martin Hevey, a senior associate in our disputes team.

Our podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify and SoundCloud and can be accessed on all devices. A new episode is released every couple of months. You can subscribe and be notified of all future episodes.

Below you can find links to our blog posts on the developments and cases covered in this podcast.

• UK signs Hague Judgments Convention 2019: a further step toward facilitating the international enforcement of English judgments
• Government proposes legislation to permit funder DBAs in opt-out competition class actions
• Revised litigation funding agreement approved for opt-out competition claim: fee based on multiple of funding was not a DBA
• Competition Appeal Tribunal finds funding agreement based on multiple not a DBA, despite express cap by reference to proceeds
• Representative actions: Court of Appeal decision gives go ahead for secret commissions claim, but suggests only limited issues may be dealt with on “opt-out” basis
• Courts can compel parties to engage in ADR: Court of Appeal finds comments to the contrary in Halsey not binding
• Exclusion clauses: High Court grants summary judgment as losses fell within clear and unambiguous exclusion clause and UCTA reasonableness test did not apply
• Reasonableness of exclusion clause under UCTA: Equality of commercial bargaining strength does not necessarily mean equality of bargaining strength as to contract terms