News & Events
News & Events
Event Date: 7 Nov, 2024
We are delighted to invite you to our ‘Contempt of Court In Commercial Disputes’ Breakfast Seminar on Thursday, 7th November at The Reform Club, London. You are invited to join Outer Temple Chambers for a breakfast seminar focusing on contempt of court in commercial disputes in the Business and Property Courts. With the Law Commission Consultation Paper closing on 29 November 2024, high profile committals of Soophia Khan, Graham Darby and Tommy Robinson, and near-misses for Katie Price and Oleg Deripaska, contempt of court is an essential part of a commercial litigator’s toolkit. Members of Outer Temple’s commercial and business crime teams together with guest speakers will discuss a range of contempt matters across three panels: Panel One – ‘Caselaw…
Outer Temple’s Helen Pugh, James Leonard KC and Charlotte Elves were instructed in Commercial Bank of Dubai SC & Ors v Al Sari. The Court of Appeal handed down judgment which clarifies the law on alternative service in contempt proceedings. The Court of Appeal have clarified the law on alternative service in contempt proceedings in an important judgment handed down in Commercial Bank of Dubai SC & Ors v Al Sari [2024] EWCA Civ 643. The Court of Appeal accepted the submission of the 1st Appellant (represented on appeal by Helen Pugh of Outer Temple Chambers) and 2nd Appellant (represented on appeal by James Leonard KC and Charlotte Elves) that an order permitting alternative service in a previous phase of…
News 13 Jun, 2024
On 22 May 2024, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in İşbilen v Turk [2024] EWCA Civ 568 in which James Counsell KC and Helen Pugh were instructed. James Counsell KC and Helen Pugh acted successfully for their client, Selman Turk in his appeal against the immediate custodial sentence for Contempt of Court imposed by the High Court. In this long-running, complex civil fraud case, the defendant was found in contempt of court for breaching disclosure obligations ancillary to a proprietary injunction aimed at recovering funds allegedly misappropriated from the claimant. In a judgment dated 6 March 2024, the defendant was sentenced to 12 months’ immediate imprisonment. Following a successful application for bail made, unusually, to the Court of…
News 24 May, 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
Robert Dickason and Joshua Hitchens have secured the dismissal of Contempt Proceedings arising out of the widely reported case of Muyepa v Ministry of Defence [2022] EWHC 2648 (KB). Robert Dickason and Joshua Hitchens, instructed by Marc Livingston, Simon Barker and Catriona Virden of Janes Solicitors, have secured the dismissal of Contempt Proceedings brought against their clients, Brian and Racheal Muyepa. The Proceedings, which arose out of Mr. Muyepa’s record £3.7m claim for non-freezing cold injuries against the Ministry of Defence, will now not proceed to trial, meaning that Mr. and Mrs. Muyepa will not be found guilty of Contempt of Court and will not face the prospect of being committed to prison for Contempt of Court. Find out more…
News 12 Oct, 2023
Joshua Hitchens was instructed by Janes Solicitors to represent the Defendant in contempt proceedings before Mr Justice Nicklin, who described the case as “a sobering reminder of the obligation on parties’ lawyers to read very carefully and to understand the effects of injunction orders”. The Defendant was subject to an injunction which restricted his use of the Claimant’s documents in proceedings. Contrary to the Claimant’s solicitor’s understanding, the injunction did not prevent the identification of the Claimant. The Defendant was accused of providing an exhibit he had introduced into proceedings to a US attorney who then made use of it in proceedings in the United States. The Claimant brought a contempt application on the basis (1) that the Defendant had…
News 22 Nov, 2022
James Counsell KC and Alex Haines, who were instructed by Janes Solicitors, represented the contemnor in a landmark appeal to the CA against the findings of contempt and the sanction imposed. The Court of Appeal gave helpful guidance on when permission to appeal is needed and on the Court’s power retrospectively to dispense with service of the injunction under the new CPR Part 81 regime. In Hussain v Business Mortgage Finance 4 PLC & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 1264, delivered on 4th October 2022, the Court of Appeal (Arnold, Stuart-Smith and Nugee LJJ) gave judgment upholding the committal order against the Appellant by Mr Justice Miles and the ensuing 24-month sentence of imprisonment, the maximum term. The Judgment is available…
News 7 Oct, 2022
