Tom Morris

Property

Tom’s property practice is wide-ranging. He is regularly instructed in matters ranging from multitrack and fast track trials and complex service charge and s.168 hearings in the First Tier Tribunal, through to possession hearings, strikeout and summary judgment hearings, and relief from sanction hearings. Notable appearances have included the following:

• Obtaining orders for possession of properties let under tenancies protected by the Rent Act 1977 and Housing Act 1988.
• Obtaining possession orders against trespassers, and injunctive relief against trespassers
• Obtaining an urgent possession order in the High Court in a trespass case affecting infrastructure of national importance, on the same day as obtaining an order abridging time for service to a few hours.
• Obtaining possession orders against mortgagors
• Obtaining orders for possession of commercial premises on grounds of forfeiture; successfully resisting applications for relief from forfeiture; successfully obtaining relief from forfeiture (in one case ten minutes after being instructed).
• Successfully obtaining an ex parte interim injunction in favour of a business owner who had been unlawfully evicted, having been instructed only the evening before.
• Securing the discharge of multiple charging orders from multiple properties against the background of a complex trust dispute
• Obtaining third party debt orders in the High Court
• Obtaining non-party disclosure orders
• Appearing on behalf of an appellant against Westminster Council’s determination that she was voluntarily homeless, involving multiple successful applications before HHJ Luba in Central London County Court over the course of a whole day.
• Appearing in hearings relating to disputes under the old and new telecommunications codes, and in contested lease renewal hearings under the 1954 Act

Tom’s drafting and advisory work encompasses all areas of property law. Notable advisory work has included:

• The construction of a wide range of contractual terms, leasehold covenants, easements, and restrictive covenants
• Conveyancing disputes
• The law of forfeiture and relief against forfeiture
• The law of mortgages and receivership
• The law of trespass and nuisance, including in relation to invasive weeds
• Professional negligence in the conveyancing context
• Boundary disputes, the Party Wall Act, adverse possession and highways disputes
• Issues relating to rights of way and restrictive covenants
• Issues of co-ownership and the law of trusts in the property context, including the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act
• Telecommunications matters
• Cases involving rent review disputes, and disrepair
• Cases involving unlawful penalty clauses

As junior to David Elvin KC, Tom advised a developer on a complicated highways dispute with the local authority.

Cross-practice

Landmark's barristers often work at the intersection of our core practice areas; bringing a wide range of skills, knowledge and experience to bear on a particular dispute or issue facing a client.

Our focus is always on achieving the best possible outcome for our client. By viewing the client's objectives in a holistic way - and not purely through the lens of one rigidly-defined legal area - we deliver the best possible advice and representation in complex matters that engage multiple specialist areas of law. 

Whether it's providing support as an individual cross-practice barrister or a cross-disciplinary team of Landmark counsel, we are able to draw on an outstanding array of complementary skillsets and knowledge bases. This often achieves a better result than instructing multiple barristers from different specialist sets. This also improves the quality of client care through increased levels of communication, quicker response times, and a coordinated approach to clerking and fees, made possible by our team-based cross-practice approach.

Please contact our practice management team for more information.

Costs Litigation

Tom has a busy costs practice. He is currently instructed on behalf of the paying party in the long-running detailed assessment of a £60 million bill of costs before the Senior Costs Judge in the SCCO following a three-month trial in the Commercial Court in 2013. Partly led by Ben Williams KC and partly unled, Tom has been responsible for drafting large parts of the Points of Dispute, and for making submissions over the course of five weeks of assessment. The matter returns to court for another month later this year. The issues in the assessment include the burden of proof on the indemnity basis, the law of evidence in detailed assessment hearings, the approach to assessing multimillion pound disbursements and, in particular, the fees of experts, the reasonableness of counsels’ brief fees in the Commercial Court, the reasonableness of extensive printing and photocopying costs, and the recoverability of fees paid to non-solicitors for providing litigation support.

Tom is also presently instructed by a company in an upcoming hearing in the SCCO to determine its dispute with HMRC about its entitlement to interest on an award of costs, and on behalf of a private prosecutor in an appeal to the SCCO against a determination of his prosecution costs.

His recent work includes appearing (unled) for the successful appellant in a widely-reported appeal before His Honour Judge Lethem (Ivanov v Lubbe), which concerned two points of general importance: the proper approach to determining a dispute over disbursements in a case which commences in the portal and to which fixed costs apply, and the reasonableness of incurring court fees when a receiving party may be eligible for fee remission.

Earlier this year, Tom twice appeared before Mr Justice Fraser in the Technology and Construction Court, successfully resisting an application for costs to be assessed on the indemnity basis following the settlement of a construction dispute. Tom also appeared in the High Court on behalf of a developer in a costs hearing following the settlement of a party wall dispute, and on behalf of the Legal Aid Agency, successfully defending a series of applications for relief under the Crown Proceedings Act and for a writ of control against the Lord Chancellor.

In the county court, Tom has recently appeared on behalf of an impecunious company, successfully opposing an application for security for costs and obtaining a costs order against the applicant, and on behalf of an individual successfully to resist an application for her defence to be struck out unless she paid the costs of an interim application. He also has particular experience in fixed costs and RTA portal cases, and frequently advises and appears on behalf of insurers in related applications.

Tom has appeared in the SCCO in assessments of solicitor client costs under the Solicitors Act 1974, as well as providing advice and drafting in relation to the status of solicitors’ bills.

Separately, Tom has advised on:

• The assignment of CFAs
• The cost consequences of Part 36 offers
• The law of interest on costs
• The basis for departing from Part 36 cost consequences on the basis of injustice
• The applicability of fixed costs in RTA protocol disputes.

Tom has also worked with David Holland KC on solicitors’ liens.

ADR

Highways and Rights of Access

Local Government