Legal News

Former solicitor Phil Shiner, previously principal of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, by Judge Christopher Hehir at Southwark Crown Court. 

A judicial academy has opened, with the aim of helping up to 500 legal executive lawyers become judges in the next five years.

A firm which helped victims of the Windrush scandal and a junior lawyer who helped design British Red Cross policies and also supported death row inmates with appeals are among the prizewinners recognised at the 2024 LawWorks Pro Bono Awards

Foreign judgments can serve as the basis for bankruptcy or winding-up petitions even if not formally recognised in the courts of England and Wales, two recent judgments confirm. However, the process is not automatic, as Lauren Pardoe, partner, and Camilla Pratt, senior associate, in Rosling King’s dispute resolution group, write in this week’s NLJ.

The Family Procedure Rules (FPR) have changed. In this week’s NLJ, David Emmerson, partner at Anthony Gold, takes a detailed look at the new rulebook, particularly the powers granted by Pt 3 on case management and the use of non-court dispute resolution procedures.

The vital question of when exactly security is deemed received—whether it is on payment or on receipt of cleared funds—is addressed in this week’s NLJ, by Avneet Baryan, senior associate at Mills & Reeve.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, if passed into law in its current form, would ‘create the most tightly regulated regime, with the most safeguards, in the world where access to assisted dying is legal’, writes James Lister, partner at Stevens & Bolton, in this week’s NLJ.

How exactly are the police using their stop and search powers? In this week’s NLJ, Neil Parpworth of Leicester de Montfort University crunches the numbers and drills into the detail to uncover a less-than-rosy picture.

A rise in nuisance claims against water utilities and in silicosis claims are among the insurance predictions for 2025.

The Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood has raised the personal injury discount rate (PIDR)—used by the courts to calculate lump sum awards for long-term injuries—from -0.25% to 0.5%.