Contemplating the success or failure of the Leeds Mercantile Court in its first years, I only had to think back to a registrar’s appointment in Queen’s Bench Division (QBD) over 15 years ago, seeking an important and very gettable order in a company law matter involving warranty claims, loan notes, set-off and the rest.
The registrar hearing such interlocutory matters was a kindly but slightly resigned former solicitor from general practice, whose more usual diet was varying periodical payments, or granting stays of applications for possession. It was premature to expect the QBD in Leeds, at that time, to deal with the more sophisticated commercial work the then growing Leeds legal monster was beginning to require.
