Legal News

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 

Law reform to give more rights to cohabiting couples has been on the campaign agenda for a long time, but is a blanket approach best? In this week’s NLJ, Caroline Bowden, consultant at Anthony Gold, looks at the difference between couples who have chosen not to legally regulate their relationship, and those where one partner has economic power and the other does not.

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’.

Lawyers have warned the government’s immigration white paper could hike costs for employers and lead to labour shortages.

Mergers and acquisitions are out and marginal gains are in, according to the Bellwether Report 2025.

Lawyers have uncovered a major inheritance tax oversight affecting thousands of families of victims of the infected blood scandal