Disruptive Asset Finance
Disruptive Asset Finance Spring 2023
Welcome to another edition of Disruptive Asset Finance! Despite war, rising living costs and inflation at the start of 2023 the asset finance industry has continued to grow. Perhaps that is not surprising because in tough economic times businesses need to be extremely vigilant when it comes to managing their cash flow and asset finance is one way to reduce debt and expenses.
Despite this positivity the asset finance market must, of course, still be alert to the challenges this climate brings. Dealing with debt recovery efficiently is particularly important in an economic downturn. In this edition of Disruptive Asset Finance Owen Williams and Philip Roberts consider key cases relating to the enforcement of judgments last year.
We highlighted in this earlier edition of Disruptive Asset Finance how fraud usually increases in difficult financial times and the importance of documents when proving such cases. With so many documents now being electronic, Louise Goodwin explains how a search and seizure order can assist with the preservation of electronic documents.
Recession also brings heightened risk with business relationships. A recent case reviewed by Peter Brewer highlights the importance of reviewing terms and conditions regularly to ensure they minimise such risk. He explores how an asset finance company successfully defeated a claim bought against it in relation to the supply of coaches without a full trial. The lender was successful due to exclusion clauses in their finance terms.
On your marks, get set… go? It seems that we can finally expect major changes this year to the way costs will be recovered in a wide number of commercial litigation cases. The Government has said it will implement a fixed costs regime but until very recently there has been a continuing lack of certainty. October 2023 is now set to be the implementation date and we now have access to the draft amended Court Rules (yet to be approved and made into law). Geraldine Stephens takes a closer look at what we might expect.
In this edition
Developments in enforcing judgments – Key cases of 2022
Dealing with debt recovery efficiently is particularly important in an economic downturn. Owen Williams and Philip Roberts considers key cases relating to the enforcement of judgments last year. Read more
The role of the expert in litigation
Expert evidence is used to assist the court when the case before it involves matters on which it does not have the requisite technical or specialist knowledge. This means that the range of potential expert witness evidence is extremely broad reflecting the varied subject matter of legal disputes. Read more
Search and seizure orders – The forensic perspective
With so many documents now being electronic Louise Goodwin explains how a search and seizure order can assist with the preservation of documents, particularly those stored electronically. Read more
The effectiveness of contractual exclusion clauses
A recent case reviewed by Peter Brewer highlights the importance of reviewing terms and conditions regularly to ensure they minimise that risk. He explores how an asset finance company successfully defeated a claim bought against it in relation to the supply of coaches without a full trial. The lender was successful due to exclusion clauses in the finance terms. Read more
Wider fixed costs regime is on its way
The rules relating to the recovery of legal costs in the majority of money cases up to £100,000 is to be subject to a major reform expected to take place from October 2023. The draft rules have now been released. Read more
