The situation is this: you represent a manufacturer in a tort dispute. During discovery, plaintiffs notice a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of your client’s representative, but elect to forgo the deposition in exchange for negligible admissions filed by your client. Discovery has closed. The trial date is looming ...
Alternative dispute resolution benefits the public no matter what the outcome Attorney-General Robert McClelland continues to pus alternative dispute resolution after launching the report A Strategic Framework for Access to Justice in the Federal Civil Justice System late last year. One of its main recommendations is to encourage Commonwealth agencies to use ADR ...
The majority of disputes are settled before trial, and an increasing number are settled before proceedings are issued. The Civil Procedure Rules that provide the framework for litigation in England and Wales encourage parties to consider alternative ways to resolve their differences. There are a variety of techniques that can be utilised to achieve an early and cost effective settlement. Collectively, these are known as ADR ...
The word litigation usually strikes fear into the hearts of the business community. Litigation can be time-consuming and expensive. Badly-managed litigation is a very painful experience indeed. Managing litigation risk is therefore of huge importance for businesses. But the challenge doesn’t start at the Court door ...
Interest about the relevance of buyer power for competition has been growing in the last decades, as the markets of retail distribution were subject to a process of consolidation, if at different speed, in most European countries ...
The Ukrainian telecommunications market has enjoyed dynamic growth over the last five years, with an increasing number of telecommunications operators. According to the National Communications Regulation Commission (the NCRC), the Ukrainian telecommunications regulator, the number of licensed telecommunications operators reached almost 1,500 in Ukraine in 2009. The NCRC reports stable development of the industry despite the global economic crisis ...
Dear Sirs, On August 2, 2010 the Federal Law “On the alterations to the Arbitrazh Procedural Code of the Russian Federation” (“The Law”) was published ...
A new feature of the civil justice reform system came into effect on 1 January 2010, nine months into the revamp. Steven Yip and James Yeung report that the introduction of mediation, as prescribed by Practice Direction 31 ('PD 31'), is expected to have a profound impact on the way parties conduct cases ...
Shoosmiths - EnglandWhat is disclosure? It is the stage of a dispute when each party is required to disclose to the other party the documents relevant to the issues in dispute. It normally takes place after each party has set out its position in their statement of case ...
The answer is that they were both the subject of two recent decisions which shed further light on the ability to register three-dimensional shapes as trade marks. On the face of it, a three dimensional shape may be registered as a trade mark provided it meets the usual criteria (distinctive, non-descriptive, capable of distinguishing goods of one business from another etc) ...
The High Court has ruled that contractual interest will form part of any agreed liability cap, but that statutory interest arising from the exercise of the court's discretion will not. In Markerstudy Insurance Co Ltd and others v Endsleigh Insurance Services Ltd, the claimants alleged widespread breaches by the defendant of a number of agreements, causing the claimant to suffer loss of approximately £14m ...
Legislative Developments In July 2009, new rules came into force in Italy concerning class actions brought by consumers and final users who are the victims of unfair trade practices or anti-competitive conduct. Under the new rules, collective damages actions may be brought either by individual class members or by associations empowered by them or committees of which they are members for claims based on breaches of competition law ...
Dear Sirs, On March 11, 2010 the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev introduced in the State Duma the draft of Federal law No. 341071-5 “On alternative dispute resolution procedure by way of mediation (a mediation process)” ( “the Draft law”). It is to be applicable from January 1, 2011. View More
A raft of new legislation outlined in the Queen's Speech has been predictably derided as being unachievable in the limited parliamentary time available before the election. However, the Government's Digital Economy Bill which was published last week, appears to have a certain amount of cross party support and may therefore make it to the statute book ...
On October 18, 2009 the basic provisions of the Federal Law No. 205-FZ dated July 19, 2009 “On amending of several legislative acts of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter – “the Law”) which provide for essential amendments to the Arbitrazh Procedural Code of the Russian Federation come into force ...
The Quebec Court of Appeal has issued an important decision concerning the application of zoning by-laws to aeronautical activities. In Lacombe et al. v. Sacré-Coeur (Municipalité de), the Court was called upon to rule on a sensitive issue respecting the division of jurisdiction between the federal and provincial governments. More precisely, the Court had to decide whether a municipality could govern the location of aerodromes by determining the zones in which they can be located ...
The House of Lords has made it easier for claimants to show that they are "disabled" and thus protected under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 ("DDA"). Employees are only protected under the DDA if they can show that they are "disabled". This word has a specific legal meaning: "a person has a disability .. ...
A recent Court of Appeal case has cast doubt on the value of such 'non-waiver' clauses. When a party to a contract waives a breach of that contract by the other party, it voluntarily abandons its legal rights to enforce the contract, or to claim any remedy, in relation to that breach. A waiver must be clear, but may be oral or written. Importantly, a waiver need not be express, but can be inferred from a course of conduct ...
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has launched the new Privacy Notices Code of Practice. It is the most recent step in the ICO's continuing battle to ensure consumers are kept informed about how and why their personal data will be processed. Months of ICO research has revealed that over half of consumers do not understand what they are signing up to when they fill in online and paper forms ...
The Bill requires online retailers to take 'all reasonable steps' to avoid selling age-restricted products to those underage. It also requires annual advice from government to retailers setting out what constitutes 'all reasonable steps' ...
Customs has changed, with immediate effect, the way in which they deal with goods suspected of infringing brand owners' intellectual property rights. The changes are bad news for brand owners who now have to initiate court proceedings each and every time they wish Customs to seize a consignment of infringing goods ...
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has recently issued proceedings against a franchisor and its director for allegedly engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct, in breach of section 52 of the Trade Practices Act (TPA). Various breaches of the Franchising Code of Conduct (Code) have also been alleged ...
Mobile phone companies Vodafone and Telefónica O2 have agreed to pool their UK network infrastructure They are following the lead of H3G and T-Mobile, who are already one year into their joint consolidation project. The operators aim to share existing sites with the intention of reducing the total rent roll each company pays to landlords ...
