Damages

Key Remedies

from Commercial Disputes

Damages — monetary compensation — are the default remedy in English law, but courts have a range of additional tools. An injunction is a court order requiring a party to do or refrain from doing something — commonly used to enforce restrictive covenants or restrain breaches of confidence. A freezing order (formerly a Mareva injunction) prevents a defendant from dissipating assets before judgment, and a search order (formerly an Anton Piller order) allows premises to be searched for evidence. Specific performance compels a party to fulfil its contractual obligations but is granted only where damages would be inadequate — most commonly in real estate transactions.

Recent Trends

from Commercial Disputes

Litigation funding — where a third party finances a claimant's legal costs in exchange for a share of any recovery — has transformed access to justice for complex commercial claims, though the Supreme Court's decision in PACCAR (2023) temporarily disrupted the market by classifying certain funding agreements as damages-based agreements. Group litigation and collective proceedings (particularly under the Competition Act 1998) are growing in scale and frequency. The rise of remote and hybrid hearings, accelerated by the pandemic, has permanently changed court procedure. Disclosure reform — particularly the mandatory use of the Disclosure Pilot Scheme in the Business and Property Courts — aims to reduce the cost and burden of the traditionally most expensive stage of litigation.