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The lie(s) of the land

05 November 2020 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7909 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Dominic Regan tells tales of ‘questionable’ representations & asks if enough is being done to drive out the fibbers from the law

Earlier this year the wording of the Statement of Truth as appended to statements of case, witness statements and other materials was overhauled. A new sentence was added. It reads: ‘I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.’

The undoubted intention was to flag up the adverse consequences of making false representations but will it make a blind bit of difference? The law reports are bursting with examples of people involved in litigation talking total tosh.

Implausible

In the recent case of RE MKG Convenience Ltd [2020] EWHC 547 (Ch) liquidators were in pursuit of the goods, takings and other assets which had vanished without a trace when a small chain of convenience stores folded. In particular, where had the money

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Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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