John has extensive experience in this field in which he has acted for claimants in both jury and judge alone trials. His expertise in criminal law has enhanced his skill in this type of litigation, which usually involves claims for wrongful arrest, unlawful detention, unlawful searches (whether pursuant to warrant or otherwise), breaches of human rights, excessive force/assault, misfeasance in a public office and malicious prosecution. John's cases for false arrest have included a cancer patient mistakenly arrested for being a drunk punk rocker, a father taking his son to football wrongly arrested for drunk driving and failing to provide a breath specimen, a clergyman’s daughter mistakenly identified as a suspect and arrested - then charged with resisting arrest and assault on a police officer, and a boyfriend arrested whilst having an argument in the street with his girlfriend. John's cases for unlawful search/trespass/human rights breaches include a claim for damages for an unlawful search of a wealthy homeowner’s property

John has significant experience in asset recovery. His cases include Norwich Pharmacal relief, Bankers’ Trust applications, Freezing Injunctions, Third Party Debt Orders, orders for the examination of debtors by judgment creditors (not the court – an important difference) and bankruptcy and winding up proceedings against individual and corporate debtors. John's Norwich Pharmacal cases have included claims to ascertain the contributors to a coup plot to overthrow a government, and claims to ascertain the identity of local authority employees and contractors’ employees suspected of engaging in corruption. John has obtained pre and post judgment freezing injunctions against (a) a borrower who misused monies lent for specific purposes/transactions, (b) accountants who misappropriated monies in an tax structure involving a web of companies in offshore jurisdictions, (c) a property investor/developer who fraudulently misrepresented the nature and value of a portfolio he sold to the Claimant, (d) a dominatrix who procured monies from a slave as a result of her undue influence over him and (e) a husband who sought to dissipate his assets in order to avoid paying a judgment to his wife

John has advised on and appeared in many cases in the Chancery Division. These have covered an extraordinary range of claims and defences. For example John successfully obtained a freezing injunction against a dominatrix who had used undue influence over her “slave” to extract substantial assets from him, and he successfully defended a wife who was the subject of forfeiture proceedings (whereby she would be prevented from inheriting her deceased’s husband’s estate), on the grounds she had orchestrated his murder. Other examples concern litigation against defendants for sophisticated financial, property and share frauds often involving opaque offshore webs of companies and trusts, insurance disputes, issues concerning probate, estates and estate accounts, intestacies, interpretation of wills, insolvency litigation, possession proceedings, partnership and LLP litigation, impugned property transactions/transfers, commercial leasing (containers and vehicle fleets), dilapidation claims, contractual disputes, restrictive covenant enforcement, directors disqualification proceedings, professional negligence claims, trust litigation, commercial telecommunications disputes, contempt/committal proceedings, applications, shareholder and director disputes, compromises. This work has involved the application of principles concerning estoppel, fiduciary duty, constructive and resulting trusts, undue influence, fraudulent calumny and economic duress. Relief sought has included freezing and general injunctions, Norwich Pharmacal orders, specific performance and damages.

John has represented parents, spouses and institutions who have been “interested persons” at inquests. These have involved a wide variety of situations, including the death of a spouse (alleged by the biological family of the deceased to have been murder) in the Ukraine, a young woman killed in the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, by a falling branch, a motorcyclist who died after colliding with street furniture in central London, a cyclist who was run over by a truck in the Docklands, and a pedestrian who was struck by a bus in Stratford. In addition John has had a coroner’s conclusion and findings in an important high-profile inquest, quashed in judicial review proceedings, a difficult result to achieve.

John has been instructed by firms and individual partners in accountants’ and solicitors’ practices. These have been constituted as partnerships or LLPs. They have concerned construction of the partnership/LLP provisions, alleged misconduct by partners, contributions on the breakup of firms. Some have involved advice, others High Court proceedings and/or mediations.

John has advised and acted in litigation concerning a wide range of property litigation. These disputes have included the following areas: sales of property, mortgages/charges (including charges pursuant to the Health and Social Services and Social Security Adjudications Act 1983), charging orders, determinations of beneficial interest in land, orders for sale of land, claims pursuant to The Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TOLATA disputes), easements over property (domestic and commercial), restrictive covenants affecting domestic and commercial properties, adverse possession claims and commercial lease claims. Various of these matters concerned professional negligence claims arising in respect of the property transactions involved

John’s shipping and maritime work includes his acting as one of two arbitrators in a seller’s claim against a purchaser for demurrage/detention damages; appearing for owners in a detention/damages claim against a charterer, providing evidence to the Gerechtshof Amsterdam (the Amsterdam Court of Appeal) as to English law in respect of various issues arising out of an insurance claim for collision and subsequent desiccation damage, advising on issues arising in an emergency in a heavy salvage operation, providing evidence as to English law in respect of an arbitration before the Tokyo Maritime Arbitration Commission (TOMAC).

John has acted in a wide range of cases in this area, including litigation involving (a) the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 (Inheritance Act claims), (b) the interpretation/construction of wills (c) the entitlement of parties to interests under wills (d) the removal of executors/trustees, (e) the administration of estates, (f) fraudulent calumny, (g) undue influence and (i) Forfeiture Act proceedings