Disclosure

Seven in 10 lawyers consider the disclosure pilot scheme unfit for purpose, with many believing it has exacerbated the adversarial environment, new research has found.

A High Court has described the double deletion by a witness for the claimant of crucial emails on the eve of the trial of a film financing dispute as a “very serious misdeed”.

Parties in disagreement over how to proceed with disclosure under the pilot should not stop talking or engage in “point-scoring correspondence”, a judge has warned.

A Commercial Court judge has said that the question of costs “worries me always” and should worry judges in all jurisdictions, particularly where there is a disparity of economic power between the parties.

Commercial litigators have vented their frustration – and in some cases anger – with the disclosure pilot in the Business and Property Courts, and changes to its rules have been put forward as a result.

The Business and Property Courts must “get a handle” on why most solicitors believe the disclosure pilot is not producing cost savings, the professor monitoring its progress has said.

The disclosure pilot in the Business and Property Courts is likely to be extended until the end of 2021, with a key figure saying it would be “premature” to end the pilot as planned this year.

A former member of the board of the Weinstein Company does have to comply with a disclosure order in a sexual harassment case despite not living in the UK, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled.

It is “fundamental” to the disclosure duties of solicitors that clients are not allowed to select relevant documents, the High Court has stressed.

A company must disclose documents held by its subsidiaries and which it controls, the High Court has ruled, in a case handled under the disclosure pilot.