Chancellor’s speech at the Chancery Bar Association’s Annual Conference
Sir Julian Flaux, Chancellor of the High Court, gave an update on the Chancery Division at the Chancery Bar Association’s Annual Conference.
The speech marks the end of his first year as Chancellor. In London and the regional centres, the Chancery work fits within the overall umbrella of Business and Property Courts.
The Chancellor said: “Despite the pandemic, the work in the Division and in Business and Property Courts generally has held up and in some areas has increased.
“So far as specifically pandemic related work is concerned, leaving aside the business interruption insurance disputes, there are a number of disputes concerning rent arrears and other landlord and tenant disputes arising out of the pandemic, one of which, Bank Mellon, is going to the Court of Appeal later this term.
“To what extent we see these pandemic related landlord and tenant disputes being litigated, at least in the commercial sphere, may depend upon the success of the government’s arbitration scheme for commercial rent disputes assuming that passes through Parliament by 25 March, the date until which commercial tenants are protected from eviction.”
The full speech can be read below.