Procedure & practice

The famous phrase, ‘All rise’, is being changed to ‘All rise, if able’, to be called out by the usher upon the judge or magistrate entering court. NLJ columnist and former district judge Stephen Gold notes, wryly, ‘if there is an usher, of course’.

Mr Justice Ritchie has reminded lawyers ‘it is wholly improper to put fake cases in a pleading’, in R (Ayinde) v London Borough of Haringey [2025] EWHC 1040 (Admin). 

Respect orders, cuckooing & more: Michael Zander KC reports on the provisions of the mammoth Crime & Policing Bill

How do you write a letter to a child? Judges stumped about what to say and how to put it when explaining the outcome of proceedings to children have been issued with a helpful toolkit, writes former district judge Stephen Gold, in this week’s NLJ.

The safeguarding role of a High Court judge in the assisted dying bill currently before Parliament has been replaced by the oversight of a panel comprising a psychiatrist, social worker and lawyer. In this week’s NLJ, Sir Mark Hedley, a retired High Court judge, shares his reflections on the loss of the judicial role itself.

Enforcement of debt recovery through the courts ‘does not work’ and ‘adds unnecessary complexities’, a Civil Justice Council (CJC) working group has concluded in a ground-breaking report.

The former Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, former Lady Justice of Appeal Dame Anne Rafferty and former director of public prosecutions Max Hill KC have backed the creation of an intermediate criminal court consisting of a judge and two magistrates.

The Law Society has called for clear definitions, regular reviews and disclosure to ensure the use of computer evidence does not lead to miscarriages of justice.