Litigation and disputes · Litigation fee-earner, disputes partner
Check a witness statement against the practice direction
A trial witness statement in the Business and Property Courts runs to sixty-one paragraphs and reads like a submission in places. The review marks each paragraph that strays from what the witness can actually say.
- Agents
- Litigation & Disputes
- First draft
- A paragraph-by-paragraph markup comes back from one run, before the statement goes to the witness.
The problem
Step 01 of 05
Add the statement and the exhibits
The draft statement, its exhibit bundle and the list of documents the witness personally handled go on the matter together.
Project Halcyon: SPA warranties and disclosure
Buy-side warranty review, disclosure analysis and cited due-diligence grid.
- Client
- Halcyon Bidco Ltd
- Reference
- WC-2026-0412
- Practice area
- Corporate / M&A
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Responsible partner
- E. Vance
No conflict check on file.Chat, on this matter
Compare warranties with the disclosure letter.
Three high-priority exceptions require action: the unregistered charge, the change-of-control right and the tribunal claim.
Send a message… (@ to mention tools)BalancedPrepare for- 25 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Chat
- 21 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Run · completed · 560 credits
- 18 Aug
Project Halcyon: Disclosure Letter
Document · indexed
- 16 Aug
Project Halcyon: Share Purchase Agreement
Document · indexed
- 4 Aug
Matter opened
Opened
Step 02 of 05
Run the compliance markup
Prepare for: Court-Ready, Deliver as: Word. Each paragraph is classified as evidence of fact, argument, comment on a document, or recital of another witness's account.
Agent
Jurisdiction
Prepare for
Deliver as
Instruction
What should the agent look for?Documents
Drop a contract, or pick one from the matter
Also on the matter
- Offer_letter_v3.pdf2 pages
- Staff_handbook_2025.docx61 pages
- Board_minute_14_Aug.pdf3 pages
Platform model · zero data retention · audit register onStep 03 of 05
Read the flagged paragraphs
Nineteen paragraphs are flagged, eleven of them commenting on documents the witness is not recorded as having seen at the time.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 04 of 05
Check the required confirmations
The statement is missing the confirmation about how it was prepared and the list of documents the witness referred to, both of which are drafted for review.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 05 of 05
Sign off before it goes to the witness
The partner works the flagged paragraphs, confirms the two additions, and only then sends the draft to the witness for their own words.
Replace the UK/Ireland/EU non-compete with a 3 to 6 month restriction tied to competing corporate-law work.
Replace blanket data consent with a lawful-basis clause and a separate monitoring notice.
Remove the five-day carry-over cap and reference the statutory carry-over rules.
Narrow the client non-solicit to clients dealt with in the final 12 months.
Add an explicit working-time opt-out withdrawal mechanism.
Confirm the bonus clause states the discretion is exercised in good faith.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- Every paragraph classified, with the nineteen that stray from evidence of fact listed by number.
- The paragraphs commenting on documents the witness is not recorded as having seen, separated out.
- Drafted wording for the confirmations and the document list the practice direction requires.
- A note on the difference between tidying language and putting words in a witness's mouth.
Authorities it checks
- Civil Procedure Rules, Practice Direction 57AC
- Civil Procedure Rules, Part 32
What it does not do
- It does not write the witness's evidence. Flagged paragraphs come out, and what replaces them comes from the witness.
- It does not take the statement or attend the interview.
- It cannot confirm which documents the witness actually saw at the time unless that list is on the matter.