What is litigation funding and why is it attractive? Also known as legal finance or litigation finance, third party funding – historically – was considered an improper or corrupting influence on litigation. These old offences of champerty and maintenance were first decriminalised in England in 1967 ...
In re: Vivint, Inc., Appeal No. 2020-1992 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 29, 2021) In an appeal from the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the Federal Circuit addressed whether a party may challenge the validity of an issued patent by ex parte reexamination when the challenger has repeatedly tried to use inter partes review (“IPR”) to forward the same argument. The Federal Circuit held that, when applying 35 U.S.C ...
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration Litigation continues to be the primary method of resolving disputes in Malaysia, for both domestic and international disputes. This is not expected to change in the near future ...
There were conflicting judicial opinions of first instance courts as to whether the exception in summary judgment applications under Order 14, rule 1(2)(b) of the Rules of the High Court (Cap. 4A) (Fraud Exception) covers actions in which the defendant is not alleged to be a party to the fraud, but where allegations of fraud are made against a third party. In R. Stahl Inc ...
It seems logical that when a claimant requests that a claim be amended to include an additional condition based upon a theory of substantial aggravation, the easiest element to prove would be that the condition pre-existed the date of injury. Recently, in Houlihan v. Hamilton County, 2021-Ohio-3087, the Ohio First District Court of Appeals found that a claimant must prove a condition existed at the time of the injury before they can establish a substantial aggravation ...
September 28, 2021 By: Joshua M. Robbins When harmed or in heated disputes, companies sometimes think about bringing the “big guns”—law enforcement agencies—into the fight. Often acting through counsel, a business may seek to refer a matter to the government for potential investigation and prosecution of competitors, business counterparties, former employers or employees, or entirely unrelated persons who have victimized the company ...
In re: Juniper Networks, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-160 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 24, 2021) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit issued its fifth writ of mandamus this year ordering transfer of a patent case out of the Western District of Texas courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Alan D. Albright. (Our write-up of the recent precedential decision in In re Samsung is available here ...
At the end of this month, court fees are increasing. The change is the result of a consultation led by the Ministry of Justice earlier in the year which considered whether court fees should be increased by inflation. The full consultation can be accessed here. From 30 September 2021, the cost of a divorce will rise from £550 to £593. At the moment, where the divorce is based on adultery, behaviour or desertion i.e ...
The Decree, which came into force on 20th September 2021, has abolished the Emirates Maritime Arbitration Centre (EMAC) and the DIFC Arbitration Institute (DAI). The Decree has taken the local legal and business community by surprise, and has given rise to legitimate concerns as to its impact on arbitration proceedings presently underway ...
Parties in the process of arbitrating disputes, thinking of commencing arbitration, or even thinking of including arbitration provisions in a contract have been given a lot to think about, thanks to the changes introduced by Decree 34 of 2021. It is early days yet, and we need to see how matters develop. With that caveat out of the way, here is a rough guide of what Decree 34 could mean for parties in arbitration in the UAE ...
On September 8, 2021, Mr. Éric Girard, Minister of Finance, presented his Draft Regulation specifying the classes of liability insurance contracts that may derogate from public policy rules previously applicable to liability insurance (the? Draft Regulation ?), Namely those set out in articles 2500 and 2503 of the Civil Code of Quebec (? CCQ? ) concerning the insurer? s duty to defend and the exclusive application of insurance coverage to injured third parties ...
The recent judgment in Kinli Civil Engineering Ltd v Geotech Engineering Ltd, HCA 2141/2020, is a reminder of the importance of choosing words carefully when drafting an arbitration clause, to ensure that it reflects the parties’ intentions as to how any disputes that may arise are to be resolved. Background The proceedings were instituted by the Plaintiff (K) against the Defendant (G) for sums, said to be due under a contract between them (Contract) ...
In Surrey County Council v Suez Recycling and Recovery Surrey Ltd [2021] EWHC 2015, the parties had entered into a number of agreements and England’s Technology and Construction Court had to determine what they had ultimately agreed should be the appropriate dispute resolution forum. The Court granted the application for a stay of the proceedings in favour of arbitration, under s.9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 (equivalent to s ...
A new report has found that men have substantially more private pension wealth than women, which may pose challenges when they divorce. In October 2019, Shoosmiths commissioned research to understand the gender gap in pensions and we found that a third of married couples and those in civil partnerships did not know that they were entitled to a proportion of their spouse’s pension on divorce ...
The Court of Appeal has overturned an earlier decision of the High Court in which guidance was given on the circumstances where a child might be able to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers ...
Omega Patents, LLC, v. CalAmp Corp., Appeal Nos. 2020-1793, -1794, (Fed. Cir. Sept. 14, 2021) In its only precedential patent case this week, the Federal Circuit sent a case back for a third trial on the issue of damages. This appeal comes after the second jury trial, in which Omega accused CalAmp of infringing claims of four of its patents. In the prior appeal and the instant appeal, the Court affirmed on the underlying issues of infringement and validity ...
[!<CDATA[ Article III standing is one of the most significant rubrics to determine a federal lawsuit’s justiciability. The Supreme Court significantly altered the standing calculus in TransUnion v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190 (2021), particularly in putative class actions that allege bare statutory violations unaccompanied by actual harm ...
Below, you will find some practical solutions to prepare you for the labour litigation in Russia. The peculiarity of labour disputes in Russia is that they seldom start with great financial demands from employees. They are more about the status of the organisation, its reputation and similar issues. However, practice shows that given the length and formality of litigation, financial claims, originally insignificant, can turn into fairly large claims, over time ...
Introduction In the age of the Internet and technology, banking scams and fraud abound. Where such bank fraud is committed, it is often the case that the fraudster disappears and their identity remains unknown. How courts grant relief where the identity of the perpetrator of a bank fraud is unknown was addressed in two Malaysian court decisions in 2021: Zschimmer v Persons Unknown[2021] 7 MLJ 178 (Zschimmer); and Zschimmer v Persons Unknown (No 2)[2021] 3 CLJ 587 (Zschimmer No. 2) ...
