- within Litigation and Mediation & Arbitration topic(s)
- in United States
- with readers working within the Business & Consumer Services, Media & Information and Transport industries
- within Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Technology and Employment and HR topic(s)
That was how Stephen Houseman KC, sitting as a deputy Commercial Court Judge described the claimants’ conduct when he struck out an application for summary judgment on their US$300m fraud claim.
The defendants’ previous litigation solicitor had been deceived into meeting a private investigator engaged on behalf of the claimants in the belief that he was pitching for a new client. He was according to the Judge skilfully and tenaciously steered by the investigator into discussing various aspects of the litigation and settlement strategy of the defendants.
The Judge was satisfied that the claimants engaged in abusive conduct, and held that the “use of unethical methods to target an adversary’s solicitor in the hope of extracting sensitive information or insights from them is anathema to the norms and values of civil litigation. It is cheating the system with a view to undermining the level playing field which the Court strives to maintain between opposing parties. It offends justice.”
The successful defendants were represented by Trevor Mascarenhas, Cath Eason, Sofia Evans, Ben Cook and Dalia Afrasiab of PCB Byrne LLP instructing Simon Davenport KC, Niranjan Venkatesan KC, Daniel Khoo and Alex Georgiou.
For the judgment, click Pliego & Anor v Astor Asset Management 3 Ltd & Ors [2025] EWHC 2968 (Comm) (13 November 2025)
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
[View Source]