The North East Is Open For Business - And Property

Simon Goldberg, Recorder, barrister, and head of Trinity Chambers' Business and Property Group, looks at what the recent launch of the Newcastle Business and Property Court means for the region.

Last year saw a shakeup of the structure of the civil and commercial courts in England and Wales with the launch of regional Business and Property Courts (BPC) in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff. The BPC brings together all of the specialist business and commercial Courts under one umbrella. The recent appointment of His Honour Judge Philip Kramer as a full-time Specialist Civil Circuit Judge means that Newcastle now becomes a regional BPC centre.

At an event held earlier in the year at Northumbria University, Chancellor of the High Court, Sir Geoffrey Vos, formally launched what he called the “Newcastle Judicial SuperHighway” allowing and encouraging local and international businesses and their legal teams to resolve disputes locally. The launch will benefit the region’s thriving legal sector and the individuals and businesses it supports. In the words of Vice Chancellor Mr Justice Barling at the launch, “No case is too big for Newcastle to hear”.

So, what does this mean for the region? In the past, if a contract dispute relating to a local business needed to take place in Newcastle, the court would be forced to find a judge from outside the area to hear the case. Due to problems with availability, this often led to many cases being dealt with in Leeds or London, resulting in general inconvenience, extra travel expenses and large legal bills.

The new Court means that any case with a significant link to the region must be dealt with in the region, which extends from the Tees Valley up to the Scottish Borders, and across to Cumbria. These links include where any of those involved in the case, their lawyers or witnesses are based in the region or the source of the case took place in the region or the dispute involves land, property or other assets located in the region. The sorts of cases that can be dealt with include disputes covering business contracts, property, shareholder disputes and intellectual property.

Simon Goldberg comments: “For as long as anyone can remember, whilst business disputes have been dealt with in Newcastle it has been by a judge from outside the area. We have never had our own. We have always had to get a judge in from elsewhere and that has acted as a drag on the ability of the court to service work. If you know that the judge works full time in London, then it is likely that you will go to London. We have seen a lot of disputes involving Newcastle-based businesses go to London or Leeds, adding to the legal bill the client has to pay.”

Simon adds: “Having our own Business and Property Court through Judge Kramer’s appointment will benefit many small local businesses, who often are not able to stump up the fees needed to pay for expensive legal battles outside the area. The changes will also benefit the region’s thriving legal and related professional services ecosystem. This is another tick in the box for national and indeed international businesses, looking to move to or expand into the North East.”

As specialist legal advocates and with chambers in both the heart of Middlesbrough and Newcastle’s Quayside, the barristers at Legal 500 Tier One ranked Trinity are already seeing the benefits to the region of the new structure. Simon notes: “An increasing amount of work is coming to Chambers from outside the region from heavyweight national firms, including from London. We are also seeing cases with an international element, as well as work from regional commercial firms recognising the significant talent we have here in the North East”. This increased activity mirrors other areas of significant growth at Trinity with ten barristers joining across Chambers’ Family, Criminal, Personal Injury and Employment teams in the last year. Looking ahead to the future, Trinity are recruiting several new pupils, “trainee” barristers. As well as winning a raft of public and commercial sector tenders across a range of practice areas, following a rigorous application process and tight competition, Trinity now has six barristers on the Government Legal Department (Treasury Solicitor) panel of regional counsel.