Peter Hayden sheds light on Cayman’s new commercial court
On 2 November 2009 the Cayman Islands launched its new commercial court, in the form of the Financial Services Division (FSD) of the Grand Court.
The launch of the FSD is part of a restructuring of the court through the Grand Court (Amendment) Rules 2009 which came into force last November and divide the court into five divisions:
l Civil Division;
l Family Division;
l Admiralty Division;
l Criminal Division; and
l the FSD.
The FSD is dedicated to dealing with more complex and high value litigation and insolvency matters. New matters falling within the definition of “financial services proceedings” must be commenced in the FSD and transitional provisions apply to existing matters. The court is currently working to transfer appropriate existing cases into the FSD.
The definition includes proceedings relating to mutual funds and exempted insurers, regulatory applications, high value contract and trust disputes, applications under the Companies Law including insolvency matters, applications relating to cross-border insolvency proceedings and actions to enforce foreign judgments or arbitral awards.
Some of the first large scale litigation to be transferred to the FSD includes
