A description of the PLC Dispute Resolution service. Click here or call 020 7202 1220 to register your interest in a free trial.
PLC Dispute Resolution (incorporating PLC Arbitration) is an innovative web-based legal information service that provides up-to-date and practical guidance on litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
The service covers practice and procedure and those matters which are of concern to all those involved in dispute resolution, regardless of their specialist area. It is relevant to all forms of disputes from relatively straightforward litigation to complex multi-jurisdiction arbitrations.
The service is designed and written by Practical Law Company's professional support team of 13 dispute resolution specialists who have extensive experience. The materials are supplemented by materials written by expert solicitors, barristers and other professionals.
The important benefits of the service include saving fee earners' time and raising the quality of their work, for example, by ensuring they are aware of relevant current developments and their practical implications. The service also freesup PSLs to focus on client-specific or firm-specific tasks, rather than generic current awareness and maintenance of basic know-how materials. For more of the benefits of the service, see Advantages.
PLC Dispute Resolution comprises:
Practical legal updates published on the web and delivered to subscribers by a weekly e-mail.
A comprehensive bank of practice notes containing clear, succinct explanations of the law and procedure relating to all forms of dispute resolution. These are continually updated to reflect any change in law or practice.
Standard documents and case studies, each with drafting notes, providing worked examples of certain types of claim, application or procedure. These are updated as developments occur.
Quick guides and checklists to guide you through various procedural steps in litigation.
Articles which discuss topical issues that are of particular interest to dispute resolution specialists. These may be written by the from PLC Magazine and Cross-border Quarterly .
Multi-jurisdictional guide to dispute resolution, in Q&A form, covering 26 jurisdictions.
A large number of court forms in word, quick reference guides to court fees and time limits under the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and other litigation tools to help save time for a busy practitioner.
Podcasts and training webinars which can help you to stay up-to-date on legal developments, gain CPD points and ensure you are getting the most from PLC Dispute Resolution.
The updates cover:
Significant court decisions and arbitration awards.
Changes in practice and procedure, including CPR updates.
Proposed, draft and new UK and EC legislation and regulations.
Major consultation papers from the EC, UK government and other relevant bodies.
Each day, the professional support team monitors over 500 relevant sources to identify developments which are of practical significance to the practitioner. PLC Dispute Resolution does not simply pass on raw information. Our updates include:
A summary of the facts and decision.
Relevant background information on the legal framework.
Comment on the practical impact of the development.
Each update includes hypertext links to the source material (for example, the full text of the judgment) and other PLC materials where appropriate.
You can choose to receive updates by either weekly or monthly e-mail. All updates are accessible from a fully searchable archive on the homepage.
The updates can be integrated with subscribers' internal briefings and marketing materials.
Practice notes are concise, practical explanations of the law and practice of a particular topic. For experienced lawyers, they provide up-to-date and reliable statements of law and practice. Junior lawyers will use them to gain an understanding of relevant areas not yet acquired through practice. The notes may also be used as the basis for in-house training sessions.
Practice notes are kept up-to-date by our professional support team whenever the relevant law and practice changes.
The PLC Dispute Resolution service provides standard documents, case studies, letters and example court applications. They are kept up-to-date by our professional support team as the relevant law and practice change.
The documents are supplemented by drafting notes. These give detailed guidance on the relevant legal, drafting and procedural issues, assisting you to adapt the example to your or your client's specific requirements.
These materials provide an easily searchable bank of information to save the practitioner time and avoid "reinventing the wheel".
Practical Law Company offers an application allowing certain documents to be downloaded in a firm's style, saving considerable time for fee-earners and secretaries. For more information, see PLC Firmstyle.
The service also gives access to a number of user-friendly quick guides and checklists. These act as an aide memoir to ensure important points of practice and procedure are followed. They can easily be converted into training materials or provided to clients to bring them up to speed.
The service provides access to dispute related content in any issue of PLC Magazine since its launch in 1990. Feature articles can be read on screen in simple text or PDF format, complete with graphics.
The service is delivered through a web site using advanced technology specifically developed by Practical Law Company to provide a seamless source of managed know-how to the practitioner in an easy-to-access form. Its features include:
Searching. All text is fully searchable. Searches can be refined by type of material (for example, standard documents only) or by topic.
Index. Alternatively, you can browse topic areas and access information via the PLC Dispute Resolution homepage or the PLC topic index.
Links. Frequent hypertext links will take you seamlessly to additional information in other Practical Law Company materials and external sources, if required.
Integration. You can integrate your own know-how materials closely with those of the service while maintaining confidentiality. For further information, please contact your account manager, or call the PLC helpline.
PLC Dispute Resolution is supported by 17 other Practical Law Company services. The whole professional support team comprises over 120 experienced former practitioners covering a wide range of law. To view their profiles, see PLC professional support team.
The service has a consultation board (www.practicallaw.com/3-204-9197) of leading experts. They are used as a sounding board on points of law and practice and often work closely with us on our materials. The combined expertise of our own editors and the board ensures that the service stays at the leading edge of practice.
Below are our subscribers' testimonials on how they use PLC Dispute Resolution and gain maximum value.
"As a leading litigation practice, we need to be sure we are giving our clients the focused, high quality advice they expect. PLC Dispute Resolution complements our PSL function perfectly by providing our lawyers with reliable, high calibre know-how, freeing up their time to focus on our clients' specific requirements."
Patricia Orr, Senior Professional Support Lawyer, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert LLP
“Informative, reliable and practical: PLC Dispute Resolution is an excellent service. The weekly e-mail update and the responsiveness to recent developments is very impressive. The team has built a comprehensive collection of materials on all aspects of dispute resolution, which is constantly updated, and they continue to develop the service."
Gareth Kagan, Head of Dispute Resolution Group, Bond Dickinson LLP
"Before PLC Dispute Resolution I struggled to keep my litigation precedents up to date. PLC Dispute Resolution means I can abandon that task - and have access to a full and complete range of precedents and explanatory notes. In a medium sized firm without PSL, this service is priceless."
Mark Tudor, Partner - Commercial Litigation Team, Matthew Arnold & Baldwin
"I have come to dread Thursday mornings, because I know that in the middle of the night PLC will, without fail, have delivered another lengthy e-mail full of timely, topical and must read update materials that all litigators, no matter how busy, must take time to read. Fortunately, there is a range of reading methods - in detail or in overview. Either way, Thursday tends to end with me better informed. PLC's update e-mail is essential reading - and proves that the more experienced you are, the more you realise you need materials such as these to keep up to date."
Colin Passmore, Senior Partner, Simmons & Simmons LLP
The service is a cost-effective tool for any lawyer working in the area of dispute resolution and arbitration. It is also beneficial to other professionals working alongside lawyers on dispute-related matters.
It helps:
Save lawyers' time and enhance their productivity.
Improve the quality, speed and accuracy of the service to clients.
Bring trainees and recently qualified lawyers up to speed quickly and effectively.
Ensure lawyers are aware of relevant current developments and their practical implications.
Allow PSLs to focus their resources and time on firm-specific and client-specific know-how and to finding innovative solutions to new transaction problems, instead of routine information gathering.
Attract, maintain and motivate good lawyers.
For further information, please contact our sales department on the Practical Law Company Helpline.
