Bahari Yeow Tien Hong

On the court record

A commercial-and-public-law litigation practice combining contract and evidence work with judicial review, tax and defamation.

Bahari Yeow Tien Hong practises in commercial and public-law litigation, appearing mainly in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) with some Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan) work. The reported decisions are contract- and evidence-focused. A recurring subject is the formation of a contract — whether an agreement came into existence on the facts — together with questions of the burden of proof in commercial disputes and the meaning of commercial terms such as an obligation to use "best endeavour".

The practice also reaches public law. The reported matters include applications for judicial review and constitutional questions, together with tax, defamation and summary-judgment work. Appearing as plaintiff, defendant, applicant and respondent, the practice is instructed on both sides of commercial disputes and in matters challenging or defending official decisions, in disputes that turn on the construction of agreements, the sufficiency of the evidence, and the interpretation of statute.

The work turns on the principles of contract and evidence and on public-law review. In the contract-formation matters the argument concerns whether the elements of a binding agreement are present and where the burden of proof lies; in the summary-judgment matters whether there is a triable issue; in the judicial-review matters whether the decision-maker acted lawfully; and in the tax and defamation matters the governing statutory and common-law rules. The reported reasons frequently turn on the careful construction of commercial documents and on the incidence of the burden of proof.

The overall profile is a commercial-and-public-law litigation practice conducted at first instance and on appeal, combining contract, evidence and summary-judgment work with judicial review, tax and defamation. The matters turn on the formation and construction of contracts, the burden of proof, and the principles of judicial review, rather than on any criminal dimension, marking a practice that bridges commercial disputes and public-law challenge. The recurring attention to contract formation and the burden of proof gives the commercial work an evidential emphasis that carries across into the summary-judgment matters.