Commercial Court Sees Rise in UK Litigants

By Monidipa Fouzder » The proportion of UK litigants in London’s Commercial Court has increased, research suggests, as the Rolls Building prepares to host a new specialist list for complex financial markets cases in the face of competition from centres such as Dubai and Singapore. Figures from consultancy Portland’s study show that the UK accounted for 37% of the total number of Commercial Court litigants in the 12 months to the end of March 2015, compared with 23% the previous year. Of the remaining 63%, Eurasia (Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia) and the Middle East and North Africa had the highest representation outside Europe. The court heard 207 cases, 88 up on the previous year. Earlier this month, the lord chief justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, confirmed that a new financial list would provide a specialist dispute resolution forum for claims of £50m or more, or cases that raise issues concerning financial markets. International firm Clyde & Co had the highest number of cases in the Commercial Court (22), followed by Stephenson Harwood (15) and Ince & Co (seven). Idil Oyman, head of Portland’s legal disputes practice, said: ‘We’ll have to see if the resurgence of UK litigants is a one-off or whether this is the start of a longer-term reversal of the dominance of foreign litigants.

[Courtesy: The Law society Gazette]