Procedure & practice

The Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, has approved amendments to Practice Direction 27B, the Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury Claims in Road Traffic Accidents (the RTA Protocol), the Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury (Employers’ Liability and Public Liability) Claims (the EL/PL Protocol) and the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims Below the Small Claims Limit in Road Traffic Accidents (the RTA Small Claims Protocol). 

There seems to have been a spate of judgment embargo breaches since Sir Geoffrey Vos’s warning to forgetful, clumsy or errant lawyers last year that those who breach ought to expect contempt proceedings to follow. 

‘Kompromat, often used in Russia to keep politicians and businesspeople in line, is now frequently being submitted as evidence in the courts of England and Wales,’ writes Natalie Todd, partner at Cooke Young & Keidan, in this week’s NLJ.

Neil Parpworth considers the limits of the court’s leniency when it comes to breaching an embargo

David Walbank KC reports on the increasingly thorny issue of criminal damage inflicted through public protest

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: the criticisms mount. Michael Zander KC examines the scathing reports of two parliamentary committees

Natalie Todd surveys the boundaries for evidence gained by covert surveillance & other underhand tactics

The Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Lord Christopher Bellamy KC, have signed into effect the 154th Practice Direction update to the Civil Procedure Rules. 

The government has extended legal aid in private and public family law cases, and changed the evidential requirements for domestic abuse.

The chairman of the Manchester Arena inquiry has called for legislative change to ensure the participation of witnesses.