Civil Fraud & Asset Recovery

Members of Chambers are experienced in all manner of civil claims involving dishonesty, including those based on misrepresentation, breach of trust or fiduciary duty, cyberfraud (such as hacking), bribery or other corrupt payments, and conspiracy and accessory liability. Our members also experienced in the various techniques of asset recovery, including tracing, claims against third parties who have participated in, or received the proceeds of, fraud, and piercing the corporate veil.

Fraud litigation commonly has a cross-border aspect: assets, or entities holding assets, may be located in many jurisdictions, defendants may be domiciled abroad, and there may be parallel civil or criminal proceedings in different jurisdictions. Our members are experts in dealing with issues of private international law that may arise throughout fraud proceedings, including applications for permission to serve out, challenges to the jurisdiction of the court on forum conveniens grounds, and issues as to the governing law of a claim and the enforcement of judgments. 

Maitland also has the breadth of expertise to be able to provide barristers to advise and appear before the English Courts as well as barristers called to the local bar of a range of countries around the world where clients may wish to enforce a judgment or obtain supportive interim orders.

Where a fraud has been perpetrated, it may be necessary to seek orders for pre-action disclosure, such as a Norwich Pharmacal order, to allow the putative fraudster to be identified and the claims against them investigated, or for the claiming party to seek a freezing order, proprietary injunction, or receivership order to preserve assets pending the determination of a claim. Our members have considerable experience in seeking or resisting interim orders in civil fraud litigation and have appeared in some of the leading cases on interim remedies in fraud litigation.