Litigation

Our lit­i­ga­tion team has a wealth of knowl­edge and skill to lit­i­gate and arbi­trate all types of lit­i­ga­tion mat­ters. We reg­u­larly appear in the courts (from the Mag­is­trates’ Court to the Judi­cial Com­mit­tee of the Privy Coun­cil) before admin­is­tra­tive and quasi-judicial tri­bunals and in domes­tic and inter­na­tional arbitrations.

Before we ever get to court, how­ever, we work hard to pro­vide pro­fes­sional, prac­ti­cal and sen­si­tive advice with a view to resolv­ing our clients’ dis­putes effi­ciently and effectively.

The areas on which we advise include:

  • Actions for breach of fidu­ciary duty
  • Anti-money laun­der­ing com­pli­ance issues
  • Com­plex per­sonal and fatal injury claims
  • Con­sti­tu­tional challenges
  • Con­trac­tual disputes
  • Cor­po­rate and com­mer­cial litigation
  • Cor­po­rate crime and extra­di­tion issues
  • Defama­tion proceedings
  • Fraud, con­struc­tive trust, asset tracing
  • Judi­cial review actions
  • Juris­dic­tional and con­flict of law issues
  • Neg­li­gence, pro­fes­sional neg­li­gence and other tor­tious claims
  • Plan­ning appli­ca­tions and appeals
  • Prop­erty own­er­ship and land­lord issues

Con­tacts

Employ­ment, Immi­gra­tion and Labour Relations

Attor­neys in our employ­ment, immi­gra­tion and labour rela­tions prac­tice area have exten­sive expe­ri­ence advis­ing on all aspects of com­plex employ­ment and indus­trial rela­tions issues. We have given expert advice on Eng­lish com­mon law issues in US legal pro­ceed­ings. We also advise in all aspects of labour rela­tions dis­putes and negotiations.

We also offer advice in the immi­gra­tion field, han­dling all aspects of work per­mit appli­ca­tions and employ­ment trans­fers, Bermuda sta­tus, nation­al­ity and res­i­dency appli­ca­tions, immi­gra­tion related prop­erty own­er­ship issues and appeals to the Min­is­ter and to the Courts.

We coun­sel on a broad range of employ­ment, labour and immi­gra­tion law issues including:

  • Con­fi­den­tial­ity and restraint of trade clauses
  • Human rights claims includ­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion and sex­ual harassment
  • Draft­ing employee hand­books and employ­ment policies
  • Judi­cial review actions
  • Labour arbi­tra­tions, work stoppages
  • Nego­ti­at­ing exec­u­tive sev­er­ance and release packages
  • Advis­ing on and draft­ing restric­tive covenants (non-competes)
  • Actions for wrong­ful, con­struc­tive and unfair dis­missals and redun­dancy claims
  • Rights and duties under employ­ment con­tracts and col­lec­tive agreements
  • Rights and duties under the Employ­ment Act 2000 and Employ­ment Tri­bunal claims
  • Share option, pen­sion and other ben­e­fit schemes
  • Worker’s com­pen­sa­tion, health and safety and employer’s lia­bil­ity claims
  • Retire­ment Issues
  • Related immi­gra­tion issues – obtain­ing and trans­fer of work per­mits, nation­al­ity, res­i­dency and sta­tus appli­ca­tions, pass­port and visa issues, immi­gra­tion related prop­erty own­er­ship issues
  • Appeals to the Min­is­ter and Courts

Con­tacts

Mat­ri­mo­nial and Fam­ily Law

Fam­ily prob­lems and the dis­so­lu­tions of rela­tion­ships are sel­dom easy, and they can be extremely drain­ing, both emo­tion­ally and finan­cially. We seek to resolve issues dis­creetly, with sen­si­tiv­ity and under­stand­ing, ensur­ing that your inter­ests and those of your fam­ily come first.

The department’s exper­tise cov­ers a wide range of fam­ily law issues including:

  • Sep­a­ra­tion
  • Divorce
  • Divi­sion of prop­erty and finances
  • Pre-nuptial Agree­ments
  • Cohab­i­ta­tion Agree­ments and disputes
  • Child cus­tody
  • Main­te­nance
  • Adop­tion
  • Child abduc­tion
  • Domes­tic vio­lence and emer­gency orders

We are expe­ri­enced in uti­liz­ing a num­ber of approaches to the dif­fi­cul­ties which arise fol­low­ing the break­down of a mar­riage or fam­ily unit, including:

CONVENTIONAL LITIGATION

His­tor­i­cally, this has been the stan­dard approach. Both sides are likely to have their own attor­ney and every effort will be made to nego­ti­ate a fair set­tle­ment. Quite often, Court pro­ceed­ings will be ini­ti­ated, but usu­ally pro­ceed to a con­tested hear­ing only if it is nec­es­sary to do so and in the client’s best interest.

MEDIATION

Medi­a­tion is con­ducted by a neu­tral per­son whose role is to facil­i­tate the reach­ing of an agree­ment which meets the require­ments of the cou­ple involved. The medi­a­tor does not pro­vide legal advice to either party and each may or may not be resp­re­sented by attorneys.

COLLABORATIVE LAW

The Col­lab­o­ra­tive approach is a process that has as its sole goal the reach­ing of an agree­ment by the par­ties. The attor­neys inv­oleved agree not to take the mat­ter to Court: full dis­clo­sure of infor­ma­tion is required of all the par­ties: third party exper­tise (e.g. val­uers, finan­cial experts and child­care spe­cial­ists) can be con­sulted as required.

Our clients choose the approach that best suits their needs and we pro­vide the expe­ri­ence and exper­tise to guide them through the entire process.

Con­tacts