Injunctions Case Study 1

Bell Lax were instructed by a former consultant of a private healthcare company who was threatened with imminent injunctive proceedings. Shortly after terminating the consultant’s contract without notice, the company demanded that this consultant give several undertakings, failing which the company would issue urgent proceedings against her. The consultant was warned that she would be liable to pay up to £30,000 in legal costs if she refused to provide the undertakings.

We were first contacted by this client just a few hours before the company’s deadline for agreement on the undertakings. It immediately became apparent that our client could not give the undertakings sought as they would prevent her from assisting regulatory authorities who were investigating the company. However, as our client was a whistleblower entitled to anonymity, we could not openly disclose our client’s reasons for not giving the undertakings sought by the company.

Relying upon the terms of the now-terminated agreement between our client and the company, Bell Lax successfully avoided the imminent threat of injunctive proceedings against our client by seeking to negotiate the company’s demands. We exercised absolute discretion regarding our client’s whistleblowing whilst simultaneously working to protect our client’s professional reputation and minimise our client’s exposure to legal costs.

Following a without prejudice meeting, we were able to negotiate a highly satisfactory settlement on behalf of our client, whereby our client recovered all of her legal costs and received a significant amount in respect of her damages.