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Litigation

Dispute resolution and litigation

Our experienced and active dispute resolution and litigation team practise across many contentious practice areas and the many procedures which control those areas.

A significant number of our clients are public sector bodies including central Government, London boroughs and many local authorities up and down the country. We also act for utilities and private clients.

We appear regularly in the Courts on judicial reviews, planning appeals and injunctions. We also advise on a broad range of commercial contractual disputes (often via implementing Dispute Resolution Procedures in those contracts), and procurement challenges, as well as housing, commercial landlord and tenant, environmental work and real estate related disputes – particularly concerning land development agreements and urban renewal schemes.

Key Contacts

Work highlights

  • Acting for a central government department in a major IT contract where the losing bidder claimed the contracting authority had not done enough to neutralise the advantages of the winning incumbent.
  • Acting for large Southeast of England borough council – two challenges brought by two incumbent highways maintenance contractors in a procurement conducted by Lots. The contractor argued the Council’s award decisions failed to identify them as the “best” tenderer.
  • Acting for a Claimant borough council who commenced proceedings against a county council who decided to exclude its tender for a procedural irregularity.
  • Acting in The Queen (on the application of Charles Jones) v English Heritage and others [2014] EWHC 2259 (Admin), a case involving the question of the designation of land as a registered battlefield.
  • Acting in The Queen (on the application of Oxford Aviation Services Ltd & Another) v Ministry of Defence and Others [2015] EWHC 24 (Admin), a matter concerning Jurisdiction of the Civil Aviation Authority over military airfields which take civilian flights.
  • Acting in The Queen (on the application of Cherkley Campaign Ltd) v Mole Valley District Council and Another [2014] EWCA Civ 567, resulting in a successful appeal to the Court of Appeal over challenge to planning permission for a golf course and hotel facilities.
  • Acting for the successful local authority in the leading case on standing to bring a judicial review claim challenging a procurement law decision – Wylde v Waverley Borough Council [2017] EWHC 466.
  • Acting for the successful local authority in the first case in the UK to consider the application of the Concessions Contracts Regulations 2016 – Ocean Outdoor UK Limited v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham [2019] EWCA Civ 1642.
  • Acting for a Claimant borough council who commenced proceedings against a county council who decided to exclude its tender for a breach of a mandatory requirement.

The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in R (British Gas Trading and E.ON) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. This judgment follows the Divisional Court’s earlier refusal to grant British Gas and E.ON permission to judicially review decisions made by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and…

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Sharpe Pritchard recently acted for a Local Authority landlord in a case where they successfully ‘set off’ the tenant’s outstanding rent arrears against the tenant’s legal costs following settlement of a disrepair claim at Pre-Action Protocol stage. Case background The tenant (T) brought a disrepair claim against the London Borough of Newham (LBN) which was…

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Simon Kiely, a Partner in Sharpe Pritchard’s Dispute Resolution team, acted for Lewes District Council in prosecuting national building materials supplier Travis Perkins. The prosecution came about for offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (the Act) following a fatal accident involving wood falling from one of their delivery vehicles. At…

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