As one of the country’s leading disputes practices, Juristconsult Chambers has vast experience of litigating, arbitrating, investigating and resolving commercial, corporate, employment and intellectual property disputes across multiple jurisdictions.
Our multidisciplinary litigation team has a solid track record in advising domestic and international clients on complex, high-stakes and high-value litigation matters.
We understand that litigation can bring a range of concerns from commercial to reputational, and our advice is delivered with these wider implications in mind. We have the local knowledge to apply the regulatory, economic, political and cultural context to legal issues and develop case strategies, including technically challenging or complex multi-jurisdictional matters.
At Juristconsult Chambers, we pride ourselves on our client service and have a reputation for excellence in both the quality of our advice and how it is delivered. Our litigators are highly responsive, acting quickly to provide clear and commercially adapted solutions, ensuring that our clients are always well informed and in control.
Our litigation experience spans across various sectors, including:
- Commercial litigation for companies, family businesses and HNW individuals
- Company litigation, including contentious insolvency, corporate & regulatory Investigations
- Shareholder disputes and directors’ duties and obligations
- Enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards
- Financial crimes – Fraud and asset recovery
- Intellectual property and data-related disputes
- Employment disputes
- Real Estate litigation
- International arbitration
- Tax disputes
- Construction disputes
- High value trusts litigation
- Judicial review
- Unlawful competitive practices
Experience has included advising:
- Acting as Counsel for Okiyo Maritime Corp in an application to set up a limitation fund under the Merchant Shipping Act in the amount of approximately MUR 720,000,000 following the grounding of the vessel MV Wakashio;
- Acted on behalf of Housing Corporation Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd in the enforcement of an arbitral award in the sum of USD 22,000,000 in the jurisdiction of Mauritius, following a construction dispute with the National Social Security Authority in Zimbabwe;
- Acted as Counsel for Arabov Group, leading worldwide diamond exporters, in the enforcement of an arbitral award in the sum of approximately USD 14,000,000 in the jurisdiction of Mauritius;
- Acting as Counsel of AVC Vacation Club in Mauritius in challenging the Mauritius Revenue Authority’s assessment before the Assessment Review Committee following tax losses of USD 18,055,335 which was brought forward by the client on the basis that those tax losses should be considered as bad debts.
- Acted for a group of investors against an investment fund in which they had invested and obtained judgment in the sum of around USD 14,000,000 following a contractual dispute;
- Acted for African Leadership Unleashed Ltd, one of the leading higher education institutions in Africa, in a major cross-border contractual dispute;
- Acting for Ceridian Mauritius in an intellectual property and trademark protection dispute over the use of the name “Dayforce”;
- Acting as Counsel for a leading management company licensed by the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius, in several applications before the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court against one of its former clients, who has allegedly suffered prejudice in the amount of approximately GBP 3,500,000 following our client’s IT system being the victim of a phishing attack.
- Acted for UK-based company Jemella Ltd in a MUR 100,000,000 tort dispute where the issues pertained to the obligations of parties in pre-contractual negotiations;
- Obtaining a rescission order for a major domestic company before the Supreme Court of Mauritius against the Financial Intelligence Unit following the issue of a restriction order under the Assets Recovery Act;
- Acting as Counsel for Nova Patrimoine Ltd and Laplace Fund LP in defending an application for several disclosure orders under the Data Protection Act;
- Acts as Counsel for GIBB (Mauritius) Ltd in a number of litigation and regulatory matters.
While the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic subsists, the risks for businesses of not being able to fulfil their contractual obligations or of experiencing the default of the other contracting party is a real concern for economic operators. To manage this unprecedented situation and provide an adequate response, a careful analysis of the contract terms is essential to enable parties to exercise their rights if a dispute arises from non-performance. As a first step, it will generally be a question of analysing the possibility of invoking the defence mechanism of force majeure.
This week is the international Arbitration Week held by MARC, the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Arbitration and Mediation Centre. It is a conference with international and local participants to discuss about international and local arbitration in the context of Mauritius.