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20 January 2023 / Philip Sinel
Issue: 8009 / Categories: Features , Profession , Legal services , International
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Litigating across the Channel: is it better offshore?

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What could the English court system learn from its counterparts overseas? Philip Sinel runs through some areas for improvement
  • In the courts of England and Wales, while hearings generally progress smoothly and effectively once underway, the process of getting to court in the first place can often be held up by errors and oversights.
  • On the other hand, hearings offshore tend to be slightly less uniform in approach, but in many cases they can get underway quicker, and turnover seems lower.

Being based offshore, though often litigating in England and further abroad, I have a good vantage point to compare the service of some offshore courts to those of England and Wales.

Errors abound

Our experience of the latter is that once in court, things normally progress smoothly and as expected. Progress of hearing is effective, straightforward, and generally uniform in approach.

Getting to those hearings is a different matter. Court bundles are sent to the email address so ordered, but we need

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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