Friday 21 February 2014

UK: England and Wales: Financial Ombudsman awards and res judicata

The Court of Appeal gave judgment last week in Clark v In Focus Asset Management & Tax Solutions Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 118 and reversed the trial judge's decision (at [2012] EWHC 3669 (QB)). A summary of the court's decision has been published by the ICLR: see here. The summary's headnote reads: "The doctrine of res judicata precluded a complainant who had accepted an award made by the Financial Ombudsman Service from starting legal proceedings to pursue complaints which had already been submitted to the ombudsman service and which the ombudsman had decided. Further, section 228(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 did not exclude the operation of res judicata" (links added).

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