The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has set aside a stay in order to allow the English court to determine the validity of an arbitration clause contained in a contract between an English consumer and a foreign company. The stay had been imposed by the Commercial Court under section 9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 in favour of arbitral proceedings in New York. The Court of Appeal considered that the case had significant implications for consumers in general and it was therefore important that the issues were considered and ruled upon in public in an English court rather than privately in a US arbitration.
In-house E-Disclosure Teams Should Not Be Vilified
Cabo Concepts Ltd v MGA Entertainments (UK) Ltd & Another has caused much agitation among litigators and e-disclosure professionals. On the face of it, the case appears to be a warning against conducting e-disclosure in-house. However, properly administered, the use of in-house technology and teams can be highly effective and efficient. Here are our key pointers for companies with in-house capabilities to ensure the smooth running of the disclosure process.
US-UK Data Access Agreement: Top Five Things to Know
In May 2020, we published a blog post about the US-UK Data Access Agreement, a first-of-its-kind reciprocal agreement between the US and the UK. Under the agreement, law enforcement agencies in either country could obtain stored electronic data from communications service providers (CSPs) in the other country for the purpose of countering serious crime via a much-streamlined process, thereby overhauling the infamously sluggish mutual legal assistance process.
Crypto-nite: Court of Appeal to consider whether cryptocurrency software developers owe a duty of care to currency owners
In Tulip Trading Ltd v Bitcoin Association for BSV and Others the High Court considered whether software developers of cryptocurrency networks could owe a duty of care to owners of digital assets that have been lost or stolen.
Service by Blockchain Technology
In another example of the court embracing technology in the furtherance of access to justice, the High Court of England and Wales has permitted service by way of a non-fungible token.