• COMMERCIAL

England and Wales High Court (Commercial Court) Decisions

AXA Insurance Limited v Akther & Darby Solicitors and Others [2009] EWHC 635 (Comm)

This is the judgment following a two day trial of preliminary issues of limitation arising in this litigation which concerns the part played by the defendants, panel solicitors, in a Scheme operated by Composite Legal Expenses Limited ('CLE'). Under the CLE Scheme, an insurer, National Insurance and Guarantee Corporation ('NIG') provided ATE (After the Event) legal expenses insurance to members of the public who had various kinds of claim which they wished to litigate but could not fund from their own pocket. CLE was one of the legal expenses insurance providers and claims management companies who had started to provide ATE insurance, underwritten by commercial insurers, in the wake of the introduction of section 29 of the Access to Justice Act 1999, which took effect from 1 April 2000, under which the premium under a legal expenses insurance policy was recoverable as part of the costs. It was held that in the case of vetting breaches, the claims where the ATE policy incepted prior to 17 June 2002 are time barred. In the case of conduct breaches, where the relevant failure to notify occurred prior to 17 June 2002 or where, as a consequence of a breach of duty in failing to pursue a claim with due care and attention, there had been a material diminution in the prospects of success prior to 17 June 2002, in each case such claims are time barred.

• CRIMINAL

England and Wales High Court (Queen's Bench Division) Decisions

Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Al Jedda v Secretary of State for Defence [2009] EWHC 397 (QB)

The Claimant is aged 52. He was originally a national of Iraq. He came to this country in 1992 as a refugee from the regime of Saddam Hussein and was in 2000 granted British nationality. In September 2004 he travelled to Iraq from England. On 10th October 2004 he was arrested in Baghdad on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist group involved in weapons smuggling and explosive attacks in Iraq. He was taken to a detention facility in Basra, where he remained in the custody of British forces for over three years on the basis that his internment was "necessary for imperative reasons of security". He was released without charge on 30th December 2007. Although his detention was subject to review procedures , that was not authorised by any kind of judicial process. Shortly before his release the Home Secretary made a decision to deprive him of his nationality and to exclude him from entry to the United Kingdom that decision is currently the subject of an appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ("SIAC"). He is at present living in Turkey.

It was held hat even if the Claimant's detention was unlawful as a matter of Iraqi law it is non-justiciable in the English courts.