Legal services

Barristers would like to use technology more effectively but face ‘significant’ barriers due to the unique characteristics of the profession, Bar Standards Board (BSB) research has found.

Judges, clerks and support staff have been issued with updated guidance on artificial intelligence (AI)

Planned cuts to the Civil Service risk adding further pressure to a public court system already at breaking point: Mark Jones & Alex Curran report on the deepening crisis

The Chancellor plans to cut 15% from the civil service budget in the next five years. How would this affect the courts and justice system? In this week’s NLJ, Mark Jones, partner, and Alex Curran, senior associate, Payne Hicks Beach, look at the potential impact from a range of perspectives if the Ministry of Justice budget is cut by 15%, including the criminal courts—where the backlog is so extreme that ‘at Snaresbrook Crown Court, trials for suspects on bail are currently being listed in November 2028’.

In his latest column, Dominic Regan laments the sorry state of the Royal Courts of Justice & presents a challenge to the High Court bench

Both the Bar and solicitors’ regulators have failed to meet required standards in their annual Legal Services Board (LSB) performance assessment.

One single regulator for all legal services, regulation of all paralegals and a duty on regulators to ‘creatively’ tackle access to justice barriers are among a raft of proposals being considered by the Legal Services Board (LSB).

Is the anti-money laundering regime too vague? In this week’s NLJ, Jonathan Fisher KC, Red Lion Chambers, looks at two recent cases involving solicitors where the standards applied were assessed according to whether they were ‘adequate’ or ‘appropriate’.

This month, Dominic Regan covers leapfrog appeals, ‘short sharp mediation’, the role of juniors & table tennis bats in court

What are ‘adequate’ & ‘appropriate’ measures to take against money laundering? Jonathan Fisher KC urges regulators to exercise some restraint