Month: July 2023

21.07.23

Part 36 Offers: when tactics fail

When contemplating, and, during the course of, litigation parties are actively encouraged to settle their dispute without the matter proceeding to trial.  Whilst parties can choose to make an offer to settle in any manner they wish, Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules has been designed to encourage parties to attempt to resolve matters…

Court of Appeal overturns decision of High Court judge to refuse to accept undertakings in harassment claim

We previously published a press release on behalf of our client Dr Erica Smith following the outcome of her harassment and privacy claim against former colleague and UCL academic Dr Christopher Backhouse.  The claim concerned a sustained campaign of online harassment, which included the creation of Twitter accounts impersonating Dr Smith and offering sexual services…

20.07.23

What does the criminal law say about the receipt and solicitation of sexual images from young people?

In recent weeks, the media has been engulfed with stories about alleged sexual misconduct involving media personalities. Firstly, a BBC presenter, now revealed by his wife to be the news broadcaster Huw Edwards, was alleged by The Sun to have paid for images of sexual nature from a young person.  The Sun initially seemed to…

17.07.23

Supreme Court halts Quincecare expansion

On 12 July 2023, the Supreme Court in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK PLC [2023] UKSC 25 reversed a decision by the Court of Appeal effectively extending a duty of care owed by banks to their customers to not carry out payment instructions where the bank ought to have reasonable grounds to believe that those…

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and legal costs

It is, of course, customary for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to seek to obtain costs against a regulated person at the successful conclusion of a disciplinary prosecution albeit that, in recent times, there have been numerous examples of the award of costs being significantly reduced from those sought (see for example SRA v Charles…

14.07.23

Could The Sun be facing the “mother of all privacy claims”?

On 11 July 2023, on the News Agents podcast, broadcaster Jon Sopel asked whether The Sun could be facing “the mother of all libel claims” for publishing allegations against a then unnamed BBC presenter.  On 13 July 2023, Vicky Flind confirmed that her husband Huw Edwards was the broadcaster in question.  It might be too…

12.07.23

Can I rely on an employee’s personal emails in Court if they were left on a work computer?

The scenario Here is an example scenario: you realise that an employee has been misappropriating money from your company over the last year. You confront the employee about the misappropriation, they deny all wrongdoing, and subsequently resign. As part of the resignation process, the employee returns their work laptop and says that they have already…

11.07.23

The Public Order Act 2023: Clamping down on protests

The Public Order Act 2023 introduced several new offences relating to protests. These came into force on 3 May 2023 and 2 July 2023. The aim of the Act is to increase the police’s ability to restrict and criminalise protest activity when it causes serious disruption. The Public Order Act 2023 introduces the following new…