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Regulation matters: a duty too far?

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Clare Hughes-Williams & Tom Bedford highlight the importance of ensuring solicitors stay on the right side of the line when acting in their clients’ interests
  • Any conduct by a solicitor which could be regarded as an attempt to further their client’s agenda at the expense of their duties to the public and the court is likely to be the subject of regulatory scrutiny.
  • Practitioners must bear in mind that the outcome of a case will never be more important than the duty to comply with their obligations.

Following a recent investigation, The Daily Mail has asserted that it has uncovered allegedly questionable practices on the part of some law firms when completing asylum applications for their clients. It is said that applicants were advised to embellish their applications and that they were coached and generally encouraged to behave in a dishonest way, with the sole purpose of succeeding in obtaining asylum. This has caused a political furore at the highest levels of government. The

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NEWS

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
In a striking financial remedies ruling, the High Court cut a wife’s award by 40% for coercive and controlling behaviour. Writing in NLJ this week, Chris Bryden and Nicole Wallace of 4 King’s Bench Walk analyse LP v MP [2025] EWFC 473
A €60.9m award to Kylian Mbappé has refocused attention on football’s controversial ‘ethics bonus’ clauses. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Estelle Ivanova of Valloni Attorneys at Law examines how such provisions sit within French labour law
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