The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was the most frequent litigant in the English courts in the third quarter of 2017, The Lawyer can reveal, having appeared in eight cases that reached judgment.
According to the latest findings in The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker, which measures court activity by the number of cases and the number of case days, this compares to the bank’s six appearances in Q2 17 and two in Q1 17.
In Q3 17 RBS instructed Dentons to represent it in four of its cases. These cases dealt with a number of procedural issues prior the commencement of a £700m action brought by Stuart Wall, who alleged that the bank’s interest rate swaps mis-selling contributed to the financial collapse of his property business. This claim was due to go to trial in October 2017, but at the end of August the parties settled the dispute out of court.
In the same quarter Dentons acted for the bank in a claim brought by former clients of the bank who alleged it had acted in breach of its duty of care by mis-selling them interest rate hedging products.
RBS also instructed DLA Piper as part of a contractual dispute concerning the mis-selling of interest rate swaps together with Addleshaw Goddard, which advised the bank in an ongoing case concerning the scope of a banking mandate.
The second-most active litigant was JSC Mezhdunarodniy Promyshlenniy Bank. The Russian bank litigated in five cases in Q3 17 as part of its lengthy dispute with former banker Sergei Pugachev. The latest litigation between the parties concerned Pugachev’s concealment of assets in discretionary trusts held in New Zealand which came to judgment in October.
Also busy litigating in the last quarter was BT, which was involved in four cases, while Barclays, MasterCard and NatWest all litigated three times. Other notable litigants included British Airways, Deutsche Bank, Royal Mail and Vodafone.
These findings are based on The Lawyer’s Q3 Litigation Tracker report which is available to purchase from Monday. The report is based on over 450 recorded judgments in the Litigation Tracker database and identifies the most active firms, chambers and barristers in the last quarter.
To enquire about purchasing this report or the Litigation Tracker database please contact Gilberto Esgaio (Gilberto.esgaio@centaurmedia.com, +44 (0) 20 7970 4191) or Letitia Austin (Letitia.austin@centaurmedia.com, +44 (0) 20 7970 4662).