Legal News

What went on at the Supreme Court in 2024? In this week’s NLJ, Brice Dickson, Emeritus Professor of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, reviews the cases, volume of work and topics covered in the past year.

The family courts are increasingly ready to impose costs orders as a result of poor behaviour or misleading evidence, say Stowe Family Law senior associates Siobhan Vegh and Natalie Nero, and solicitor Rebecca Sutton. Writing in this week’s NLJ, Vegh, Nero and Sutton talk us through a recent example, the divorce and financial remedies case, NW v BH.

What extra steps should employers take when employees deal with third parties? In this week’s NLJ, Vanessa Kelly, principal associate at Eversheds Sutherland, dissects the new legal duty on employers to proactively protect employees from sexual harassment, including from third parties, which took effect in October 2024.

You may already have seen the adverts. As Professor Dominic Regan, AKA 'The insider', writes in this week’s NLJ, the decision in Johnson v Firstrand Bank ‘caused financial institutions to wobble amid talk of this opening the way to the next PPI claims bonanza’. However, stability may be about to be restored. Regan reports the Supreme Court has sprung into action.

Magistrates have asked for more flexibility and creativity when sentencing convicted criminals, and urged the government not to abolish custodial terms of less than six months.

A fair trial could not be guaranteed after leading counsel for the defendant fell ill, the Commercial Court has held.

The government has dropped its plans to digitise historic wills and destroy the original paper copies, following ‘strong opposition’ from the public.

Lawyers have until 31 January to respond to Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review of the criminal courts.

The Law Society has given a warm welcome to the government’s ‘AI opportunities action plan’, published this week.

Submissions have opened for the 2025 Pro Bono Recognition List of England and Wales.