ENGLAND & WALES Trends and Developments Contributed by: James Lynch, Sophie Green and Nick Connor, Maltin PR
Conclusion As London’s commercial courts move further towards a more formalised regime for the release of documents to the public, mirroring such moves in other English courts, litigants will need to be increasingly aware of the longer term impacts of being involved in cases in England and Wales on individual and corporate reputations. Where parties in such disputes are often international, this can markedly increase global scru- tiny of their actions and present new challenges and opportunities requiring careful management within the wider legal strategy. With the increase in transparency in the courts and the global nature of many cases, leading practitioners are increasingly aware of the importance of making communications an integrated part of litigation strategy to secure the optimal results for their clients.
published its Final Report on litigation funding, rec- ognising its importance and proposing a single statu- tory regime for all forms of litigation funding. On 29 October, the Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services noted that the government is considering the report “very carefully”. Likewise, defendants are adopting different approaches to the growing threat of group claims – for example, by targeting their atten- tion at challenging class representatives and funding agreements, or by pushing courts to hold preliminary issues trials or throw out cases that can be suc- cessfully characterised as speculative. Practitioners should be mindful of the likelihood of further legislative developments in group action cases and the impact such changes would likely have on claimants, defend- ants, funders and litigation support businesses alike.
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