Legal News

Early-stage career and recently qualified solicitors and barristers should have their laptops at the ready this Valentine’s Day, when the much-sought-after High Court Judicial Assistant Scheme opens for applications. 

Intermediate courts and juryless trials are not the answer to the criminal cases backlog, the Law Society and Bar Council have warned.

While rare, the courts can make passport orders to prevent judgment debtors leaving the country. In this week’s NLJ, Chris Bryden and Clara Parry discuss the use of this legal technique and how these orders are enforced.

The government is considering cutting funding for level 7 apprenticeships, which could ‘seriously impact social mobility in the legal profession’, Rhicha Kapila, partner and chief operating officer at Bolt Burdon Kemp, writes in this week’s NLJ. Level 7, the highest level of apprenticeships, ‘create a qualification path for graduates’ that allows them to be paid while they train.

The personal injury discount rate was increased to 0.5% in January, based for the first time on a detailed report by an expert panel. In this week’s NLJ, Julian Chamberlayne wonders whether the decision-making is vulnerable to challenge by judicial review, and uncovers a multitude of weak spots. 

There is an urgent need for clarity regarding the UK’s laws on the use of copyrighted material protection by artificial intelligence (AI) technology, writes Emma Kennaugh-Gallacher, senior professional support lawyer at Mewburn Ellis, in this week’s NLJ.

Horses for courses, a lid for every pot and costs lawyers for costs (regulated, of course). Otherwise, it could all turn into a shambles. In this week’s NLJ, Jack Ridgway, chair of the Association of Costs Lawyers and a senior associate costs lawyer at Bolt Burdon Kemp, highlights the perils of using an unregulated costs draftsman.

How will you spend your £4 Mastercard pay-out? Professor Dominic Regan, NLJ columnist, AKA 'The Insider', writes that the result of the collective action once put at £10bn and later settled for £200m renders it a ‘pointless exercise’. 

An application on behalf of former nurse Lucy Letby has been received by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which reviews suspected miscarriages of justice.

Immunity laws designed to protect embassies are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Court of Appeal has confirmed.