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Is your settlement agreement unenforceable?

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17 March 2021 / Robin Kingham
Issue: 7925 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Regulatory
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Robin Kingham provides an update on the status of Tomlin Order settlements in relation to consumer credit law
  • Gertner—a long running case involving a guarantee, a strike-down of an IVA, and a bankruptcy petition—has had a major impact on consumer credit law.
  • Litigators will need to consider this judgment carefully in order to ensure that any proposed settlement agreement does not inadvertently become subject to consumer credit regulation.

Significant consumer credit cases generally start as relatively small matters in the county court and gradually work their way up through the High Court to the Court of Appeal and, exceptionally, to the Supreme Court. The recent Court of Appeal decision in CFL Finance Ltd v Laser Trust & Gertner [2021] EWCA Civ 228, [2021] All ER (D) 115 (Feb) was very different.

Background

Mr Gertner was sued on a personal guarantee that he had given for a company loan. He defended the claim for the principal debt of £1.7m on the basis that the lender’s director

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