June 2017

The tricky issue of challenge to an expert's independence As litigators specialising in property disputes, we regularly instruct property professionals, usually surveyors from a variety of disciplines, to act as expert witnesses. In this note, we try to assess some relevant considerations to be taken into account when considering whether a property professional would have a conflict of interest in acting for a particular client. Before looking...

The court's approach to interpretation of contracts A lay person might be forgiven for thinking that a contract should “say what it means” and “mean what it says”.   If that is the case, surely it is right that contracts should be read literally?  At least that approach would give everyone certainty, wouldn’t it? Well, the Court of Appeal sees it rather differently and here’s an example. In...