Harcus Sinclair LLP v Your Lawyers Limited [2019] 4 WLR 81

Jawdat Khurshid QC and Josephine Higgs (together with David Foxton QC of Essex Court Chambers) acted for Harcus Sinclair LLP in their successful appeal before the Court of Appeal, as a result of which an injunction preventing Harcus Sinclair from acting in the Volkswagen group litigation arising out of the diesel emissions scandal has been discharged.

On 5 March 2019, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment allowing Harcus Sinclair LLP’s appeal from the judgment at first instance ([2018] WLR 2479).  The Court of Appeal found that a covenant in a non-disclosure agreement between Harcus Sinclair LLP and Your Lawyers Limited, which provided that Harcus Sinclair LLP would not act for any group of claimants other than those represented by Your Lawyers Limited for a period of 6 years, was unenforceable as being in unreasonable restraint of trade, and that the injunction should not have been granted. The Court of Appeal dismissed Your Lawyers Limited’s cross appeal against the finding that the Court’s supervisory jurisdiction over its officers did not extend to recognised legal bodies.

A copy of the judgment is available here.