Managing litigation risk over Christmas

What should you look out for?

Every year, our Disputes team works on either proceedings served during the Christmas period, or an emergency injunction.

Although most law firms allow for service by email nowadays, service by post is still the norm unless you have agreed to the contrary. Most claims must be responded to within 14 days of service on the defendant. If you are served with proceedings by post whilst you are away on holiday, and no one deals with your post, no allowance will be made, and you could find yourself on the wrong end of a judgment made in default. Having such judgments set aside after the event is far more complex than dealing with them within that deadline.

And the subject matter of those proceedings can often be time-critical. Applications for interim relief (which include freezing injunctions) are very often made in the last few days before Christmas. Applications are usually made at this time for tactical reasons, in order to put organisations and their legal teams under time pressure with limited timeframes. This is also particularly common with issues relating to ongoing construction projects. We also know there is the current potential risk of litigation being brought against universities, in particular in respect of the impact of COVID-19 and strikes on students’ education, please see our previous article ‘Flash update: Will our students bring a group claim against us?’.

Be vigilant!

You should ensure someone from the organisation keeps a close eye on incoming post. This should be someone with enough knowledge and seniority to understand the importance of court documents, who can be ready to ensure any pre-action correspondence or court documents can be dealt with expeditiously or passed up the management chain swiftly.

Or if you are the party who needs to take urgent legal action (for example, to prevent a former employee from misusing highly sensitive, confidential and valuable data, or to remove squatters who have entered your temporarily vacant grounds), then you need to be ready to act quickly.

Our experience

We have previously been instructed to advise on a Court of Appeal filing on Christmas Eve, with consequential deadlines early in the New Year. The client had tried and failed to find another firm to assist at short notice. We were happy to take this on. Feedback from this client was glowing: “The team recognises that issues faced by clients don’t always occur during 9-5 hours. It makes itself available to pick up the baton and run with it at short notice and to very tight deadlines. This is exemplified by Huw Wallis who took on a new matter over the Christmas break with a three-day filing deadline, meeting it with efficiency and calmness”.

No one puts litigation on their Christmas list, but in the event the gift of litigation is received, our Disputes team is on hand to apply for or respond to your urgent needs throughout the Christmas break. We understand these issues are time-critical and often of extremely high value financially and/or reputationally. Contact Jayne Smith if you would like further information.