General Commercial Litigation

The Dispute Resolution Team has a broad experience of acting on behalf of behalf of business owners, insurers and insured, landlords, professionals, property owners and tenants in relation to general commercial disputes. It is a practice area in which the Dispute Resolution Team has found creative solutions (including by successfully deploying novel legal arguments) in order to meet its clients’ objectives. This practice area is led by Guillaume Staal. Work includes representing clients in relation to:-

Applications for injunctive relief.
Construction disputes.
Insurance claims.
Landlord and tenant disputes.
Planning issues (including planning appeals).
Property disputes (including boundary disputes).

Experiences / Cases

Sinel v Hennessy and others

[2017-2021] James Dickinson and Guillaume Staal acted for a Jersey law firm in heavily contested proceedings in which the law firm sought recovery of improperly obtained privileged and confidential documents which appeared to have been stolen from its offices. The case was notable as it involved a successful appeal to Jersey’s Court of Appeal in which the law firm ran a novel legal argument to the effect that it (arguably) had a free- standing legal right (which was concurrent with that of its client) to recover the improperly obtained documents. Jersey’s Court of Appeal agreed. ([2018] JCA095). The law firm ultimately secured injunctive relief against all parties and along the way secured (a) an order that the First Defendant be debarred from defending the proceedings for non-payment of costs order ([2019] JRC9096), (b) an order that the trial be held in private ([2019] JRC105) and (c) an order that the First Defendant pay all remaining costs of the proceedings on the indemnity basis ([2021] JRC050).

Representation of Advocate James

[2017] James Dickinson and Guillaume Staal acted for a Jersey law firm in relation to a representation in which an Advocate of the Royal Court sought professional guidance as to whether he should deliver improperly obtained documents (that were prime facie privileged and confidential) to another advocate for use in Jersey proceedings. The Court held that he should not ([2017] JRC47B]). The law firm secured orders sealing the Court file and that Advocate James should contribute towards its costs.

In the matter of X:

[2010 – 2014] James Dickinson and Guillaume Staal acted for a local business in obtaining a valuable planning consent, which allowed the business to develop a plot of agricultural land into a substantial residential property and to address financial issues.

In the matter of X:

[2011-2010] James Dickinson represented a husband and wife and successfully recovered uninsured loses following the destruction of their home by a fire.

In the matter of X:

[2010] James Dickinson acted on behalf of a local business in order to respond to claims by a leading international manufacturer that (a) the local business was infringing its intellectual property rights and (b) for injunctive relief and damages. The claims were promptly settled.