News & Events
News & Events
Richard Hitchcock KC and Lydia Seymour acted for the successful Claimant in Avon Cosmetics Ltd v Dalriada Trustees & Ors, an important Chancery Division authority on the consequences of powers in pension scheme trust deeds being exercised partly outside their scope. The case concerned an amendment to remove members’ entitlement to a final salary link to their accrued benefits, where the amendment power contained a Re Courage – type restriction, but where ultimately some members had done better and some worse by reason of the amendment. The Court concluded that the members who had benefitted by the amendment would retain their more valuable benefits even if the amendment was invalid in relation to those who had lost out. The Judgment,…
News 19 Jan, 2024
Event Date: 18 Apr, 2024
Outer Temple Chambers’ employment specialists, Andrew Allen KC and Lydia Seymour will be speaking at the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) event taking place on Thursday 18th of April 2024. Details on how to register for the virtual event can be found below. The Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) is an apolitical organisation representing the views and interests of just over 6,000 specialist, qualified employment lawyers in the UK. Members are drawn from all branches of the legal profession and include barristers and solicitors who act for employers and employees, trade unions, the voluntary sector, industry and the judiciary. Our members have regular involvement with ELA. Employment specialist, Peter Linstead, is part of the ELA training committee. About the event Andrew Allen…
Outer Temple Chambers is delighted to welcome leading personal injury Junior, Aliyah Akram, to the team. Aliyah Akram has joined the award-winning personal injury team, based in London, further expanding our stable of specialists in travel law, industrial disease, and related group litigation. Aliyah is ranked in Chambers & Partners for her cutting-edge personal injury practice and has a particular specialism in traumatic brain injury claims and fatal accident claims. She has also been involved in some of the largest personal injury group actions ever brought in the UK including against a major asbestos manufacturer and the Ministry of Defence. Her work frequently involves a cross-border element, from asbestos group claims in South Africa to cosmetic tourism claims, which has…
News 15 Jan, 2024
Joshua Hitchens appeared as sole counsel for the Claimant, the first mono-British national to be sanctioned under the UK’s post 2018 autonomous sanctions framework. Judgment was handed down on 12 January 2024 in the third s.38 Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA 2018) delisting challenge brought under the Russian Sanctions Regulations. Mr Justice Johnson held: (a.) SAMLA does empower the Secretary of State to interfere with the right to freedom of speech/expression; (b.) The Regulations are lawful and have the effect the Secretary of State contended they have; and (c.) The interferences with Mr Phillips Convention rights were lawful and proportionate. The Claimant is expected to seek permission to appeal. Background to this case Josh was instructed in this…
News 15 Jan, 2024
Clinical negligence barrister, Tom Gibson, comments on the dramatic end to the secondary victim claims saga. The Supreme Court has now handed down judgment on three conjoined appeals on the ‘secondary victim’ criteria for psychiatric injury claims in a clinical negligence setting; Paul v Wolverhampton, Polmear v Cornwall and Purchase v Dr Ahmed. The judgment [2024] UKSC 1 brings the secondary victim claims saga to a dramatic end. The Supreme Court dismissed the Claimants’ three appeals by a 6-1 majority. The judgments (running to 256 paragraphs over 76 pages) are complicated. However, as a very brief summary: There is a crucial difference between ‘accident’ cases and ‘medical crisis’ cases: The three previous key House of Lords authorities – McLoughlin v Brian, Alcock v…
News 12 Jan, 2024
Rachel Meade was sanctioned by Social Work England and suspended by Westminster City Council in 2021 for private social media posts that included gender-critical beliefs. Employment barrister, Naomi Cunningham, successfully represented Rachel in an Employment Tribunal. Social worker Rachel Meade has successfully sued her employer, Westminster City Council (WCC), and professional regulatory body, Social Work England (SWE), in an employment tribunal for discrimination on the basis of her protected beliefs under the Equality Act 2010. Between 2018 and 2020, Meade had shared posts about upholding women’s rights from various organisations, during the then reform consultation for the Gender Recognition Act 2004, with many of her posts being links to national newspaper stories and articles by advocacy groups such as Fair…
News 9 Jan, 2024
Ian Denham successfully acted for the Appellant in this Court of Appeal case that brings clarity to the requirement to apply to increase the statement of value. This was the Appellant’s second appeal against an order that denied him permission to increase the value of his claim for damages for personal injury. The judgment also provides clarity as to the scope of CPR rule 16.3(7). Ian acted for Mr Fleming, who had previously been acting in person, on a pro bono basis through Advocate. Advocate is the Bar’s national pro bono charity that provides free legal help for those who are unable to obtain legal aid and cannot afford to pay. The Appeal The issue at the heart of this case…
News 9 Jan, 2024
Alex Haines and Victoria Brown appeared in a final hearing before the OAS (Organisation of American States) Administrative Tribunal following their earlier preliminary success in respect of an access to justice issue. Judgment No. 171 in Garry LaGuerre v. Secretary General of the Organization of American States was delivered on 15 December 2023 and can be found here. The Complainant’s journey to final hearing In 2022, Mr LaGuerre succeeded in two interim motions, discussed here. Those motions – brought by the Respondent – claimed that the case had no merit and accordingly the Complainant should be required to pay a bond. The Tribunal’s decision was an important bolster of access to justice. The final hearing Following a budgetary reduction in…
News 8 Jan, 2024
Louis Weston and Samuel Cuthbert will be speaking at the Ankura Sports Governance, Compliance and Investigations Conference on Thursday, 25th January at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. Louis Weston and Samuel Cuthbert will be speaking along other experts at the second annual Sports Governance, Compliance and Investigations Conference on Thursday, 25th January 2024 at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Conference will involve discussions on a number of topics including: Compliance in Sports Financial Regulations in Sport Next Steps on Sports Integrity Having Created Your Enterprise Risk Register, What Next? Managing Safeguarding Risk Multi-Sport Ownership and the Investment Landscape Louis Weston of Outer Temple Chambers will be speaking alongside Jason Van’t Hof of US Integrity, Affy Sheikh of Starlizard…
News 5 Jan, 2024
Jeremy Scott-Joynt analyses the powers of CPR 71 proceedings and its importance in his recent Court of Appeal case, Westrop v Harrath. Civil courts can do lots of things. They decide whether a deal is really a deal. They tell people which parent they get to live with. They decide if someone’s been discriminated against, or wrongly kicked out of their job. Or if a public body has done its job right. Mostly, though, they decide who owes whom – and how much. And when a court has decided someone owes you, you’re going to want them to pay up. No surprise, then, that a sizeable chunk of the Civil Procedure Rules deals with how – if you’re a judgment…
News 3 Jan, 2024
The Court of Appeal has provided an authoritative guide to the procedure required to find a debtor in contempt under Part 71 of the Civil Procedure Rules following an appeal concerning contempt of court in which Jeremy Scott-Joynt successfully acted for the appellant. In its judgment, handed down on 22 December 2023 under neutral citation [2023] EWCA Civ 1566 following a hearing on 19 December, the Court considered what ought to happen where a judgment debtor did not appear before the Court when ordered to do so under Part 71 – but where personal service had not been undertaken. In doing so, it stressed “the need for full compliance with the different parts of the Part 71 procedure before the making…
News 22 Dec, 2023
Fiona Horlick KC successfully acted for the appellant in his appeal against an order for committal to prison for contempt of court in the Court of Appeal on 12 December 2023. The judgment is now available [2023] EWCA Civ 1504. Fiona had not acted for the appellant at the original hearing but was instructed at short notice for the appeal. The judgement reiterated the fundamental importance of the correct procedure being followed in contempt proceedings. The appellant had been a designated member of an LLP. Committal proceedings were brought against the LLP only. However, the original judge wrongly found that she had could adjudicate on a contempt allegation against the appellant personally. As stated by Warby J “…there were two separate…
News 21 Dec, 2023
