Legal News

The Bar v the Bench race has returned, this time with solicitors entering the fray

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has amended professional regulations to permit foreign lawyers and law firms to practise in India on a reciprocal basis

UK consumers will receive between £45 and £70 each from the £200m Mastercard class action settlement

An entire cohort of people who applied for legal aid in the past 15 years has been warned to be on guard following a major cyber-attack at the Legal Aid Agency (LAA)

Bar Conference – held for the very first time on Circuit – is set to examine the Bar’s culture, public inquiries and the future of justice. Join us in person on Saturday 7 June in Birmingham with the Midland Circuit hosting a Bar Mess on the Friday evening 

Most documentary evidence is in digital format, mainly stored in cloud-based platforms, but is the new model search and imaging order, which came into force in April, fit for purpose? In this week’s NLJ, Mary Young, partner, Kingsley Napley, considers this question in depth.

Electronic wills—inevitable in a digital era, or an abomination liable to wreak fraudulent chaos? In this week’s NLJ, Brendan Udokoro, associate, and Kiera Quinn, associate (New Zealand qualified), Howard Kennedy, examine the pros and cons, risks and rewards of allowing people to tap out their will on their phone or laptop.

Protection for whistleblowers provides the main focus for Charles Pigott’s employment legal update, in this week’s NLJ. Pigott, professional support lawyer, Mills & Reeve, covers a range of situations, including unpaid charitable trustees and job applicants. He writes that it is ‘hard to see the logic of excluding job applicants, given they fall within the employment provisions of [the Equality Act 2010]’.

Robust legislation is needed to tackle the online advertising of prostitution, Lesley Manley, barrister at Church Court Chambers, urges in this week’s NLJ. New laws have been mooted, and must be ‘enforceable and effective’ and ‘avoid any unintended consequences’, she writes.

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’.