Advisory & Procedural

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Real or fake? How to ensure art authenticity in the digital age
Forgeries are as old as art itself, but impostors are having a field day in the age of the internet. Fortunately, art scholars, scientists and IT specialists are coming together to protect genuine art works and catch fraudsters.In November last  year, a rediscovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci – fewer than 20 of which survive
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Pre-Packaged Insolvency
A pre-pack sale has long been a staple of newspaper headlines and invariably alludes to creditors being “stitched up” by the insolvency process. But what is a pre-pack? The term “pre-pack sale” refers to an arrangement under which the sale of all or part of a company’s business or assets is negotiated with a purchase
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Airing dirty laundry: when can a hearing be held in private?
When considering whether to pursue a dispute through the Courts, a key consideration – particularly for private clients – is what information could end up in the press.  The general rule is that all hearings will be held in public and key documents from the claim setting out each party’s position (such as the Claim
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Are you prepared for the new corporate tax evasion offence?
The corporate offence of “failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion” came into force on 30 September 2017. Now corporations must ensure that they have developed a plan for implementing “reasonable prevention procedures”. The offence, introduced under the Criminal Finances Act, makes corporations criminally liable in situations whereby: There has been criminal evasion of
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Worldwide Freezing Injunction: clarification of the correct test for the existence of assets
The Court of Appeal has recently considered a case where Chabra worldwide freezing orders – a well-used tool of litigators, not only to secure assets to satisfy English judgments, but also in aid of foreign proceedings, pursuant to Section 25 of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 (CJJA) – were sought pursuant to the
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Policyholder Update: When does your insurer have a “duty to speak”?
In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal has found that, in certain circumstances, an insurer has a duty to tell its policyholder that their conduct is at risk of jeopardising their claim for cover.
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New European ‘Freezers’ will Provide a Fast and Effective Tool in Preserving Funds in Cross-Border Cases from January 2017
From January 2017, creditors domiciled in EU Member States that have signed up to a new European regulation will be able to avail of the new European Account Preservation Order (EAPO) which provides a novel fast track way to preserve funds held in EU bank accounts in cross-border civil and commercial disputes.  As the UK
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Putting out the fire – cracking down on illegal phoenix activity
‘We didn’t start the fire It was always burning since the world’s been turning We didn’t start the fire No, we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it’1 The Illegal Phoenix  Illegal phoenixing is a major problem in corporate Australia.  In this post we consider what illegal phoenix activity is, how the problem
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