There is, of course, a risk of partial non-compliance with the freezing or the asset disclosure provisions. However, in our experience, the Orders provide an extremely powerful launchpad from which to conduct the litigation whereby the majority of the key assets are generally secured and those that may not have been previously known about have been disclosed under the asset disclosure provisions. Substantive breaches of these provisions which are discovered can be – and in our department routinely are – punished by contempt proceedings, often resulting in fines or imprisonment. A search order is another immensely powerful tool that is hugely beneficial to the client. They can also be obtained in a multijurisdictional context in support of the same proceedings and executed simultaneously for maximum utility (time zones permitting). It is hard to overstate the litigation advantage in obtaining the client's opponent’s key documents relevant to the proceedings held in hard copy and on computers, phones, cloud networks and any other electronic devices held at the relevant premises by the respondents. On many occasions (but certainly not all) the litigation can be all but over within the first days, weeks, or months after review of the key hard copy and electronic material obtained as a result of executing search orders. This, combined with key assets being simultaneously frozen, is an extremely potent combination in any litigation – and particularly any fraud litigation where the client's opponents have invariably been caught up in dishonest conduct. Third-party disclosure orders, such as Norwich Pharmacal Orders and similar discovery type orders in the United States under the 1782 regime, can also be extremely beneficial in identifying assets, wrongdoing and further parties involved in the misconduct. EXPERT INSIGHT 47 The potential benefits to clients of properly obtaining, executing and (equally importantly) keeping these orders cannot be overstated.
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