Computer and IT law

Computer and information technology is a growing area of law which crosses traditional boundaries of practice. It may involve knowledge of both civil and criminal law and procedure as well as a degree of technical understanding.

3PB is well placed to deal with such cases because of the wide range of expertise available in Chambers. We have thriving groups covering technology and construction law, professional negligence and liability, commercial and property law and criminal law. In all of these fields there are members of Chambers with expertise in cases involving computer and information technology and the internet. In particular Nicholas Leviseur and David Marshall have experience in various civil contexts and Samuel Parrish, Nigel Mitchell, Francis Chamberlain and Iain Ross in the criminal jurisdiction.

Civil disputes

Nicholas Leviseur has experience of search orders and contempt proceedings involving computer records and

David Marshall has particular expertise in the field of computer and information technology. He has long experience in computing and the Internet, including website litigation and design issues. His professional negligence cases include negligent design and implementation of computer systems and websites.

Criminal matters

Samuel Parrish is a specialist in criminal law of long experience of commercial and other fraud, including computer crime.

Nigel Mitchell's practice has a particular emphasis on computer crime and fraud.

Francis Chamberlain has experience of large-scale computer memory fraud.

Iain Ross also handles cases involving computer crime. In 2003 he defended, successfully, in the first computer hacking case to be tried by a jury under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. The defendant was accused of initiating a "denial of service" attack causing the server of the Port of Houston, Texas, to crash. The case depended on conflicting expert evidence as to whether a "trojan horse" programme could have allowed someone else remote control of his computer without leaving a trace of the trojan on the hard drive.