What is as long as a novel and weighs around as much as a cat? Answer: the skeletons (below) in the eight-week trial of The Federal Republic of Nigeria v Process and Industrial Developments Ltd.
The trial began in the Business and Property Courts this week over a dispute of an arbitration claim worth $11.1bn.
Defendant P&ID has a 300-page skeleton argument, while FRN’s skeleton is 247. More pages than bones in an actual human skeleton, in fact.
Is this allowed? The Commercial Court Guide advises that ‘so far as possible’ skellies ‘should be limited in length to 50 pages’. Permission is normally sought for skeletons longer than this, which may be necessary in complex cases. But poor hacks who have to read these things support the words of Lord Justice Moore-Bick on being presented with a total of 116 pages: ‘In general a short, concise skeleton is both more helpful to the court and more likely to be persuasive than a longer document which seeks to develop every point which the advocate would wish to make in oral argument.’
What is the longest-ever skellie? We’d love to know: obiter@lawsociety.org.uk
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