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29 May 2014 / Dominic Regan
Categories: Features
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Book review: Zuckerman on Civil Procedure

“I would urge every litigator to acquire and devour this work”

Author: Adrian Zuckerman
Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell
ISBN: 9781847039606
Price: £199

Smash! Bash! Wallop! Batman ? No, Zuckerman.

I adored this book. Those who like their commentaries to be prefaced by obsequious terms such as “It is submitted with great respect” may detest it. No punches are pulled and the work is the better for this approach. 

Admittedly, we did not get off to a good start. The opening line of the preface to the first edition (this is the third) states: “Civil procedure is both simpler and more complex than is usually assumed.” Sorry but civil process, despite the reforms of Woolf and Jackson, remains full of intrigue.

Long overdue update

No doubt this long overdue update was provoked by the Jackson reforms and indeed there is a warm preface written by the man himself. While the text is declared to be up to date until August 2013, before the Court of Appeal terrified the legal world by deciding Mitchell

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Sidley—James Inness

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Partner joins capital markets team in London office

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

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Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Firm appoints first chief marketing officer to drive growth strategy

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

A seemingly dry procedural update may prove potent. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold explains that new CPR 31.12A—part of the 193rd update—fills a ‘lacuna’ exposed in McLaren Indy v Alpa Racing
The long-running Mazur saga edged towards its finale as the Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether non-solicitors can ‘conduct litigation’. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School reports from a packed courtroom where 16 wigs watched Nick Bacon KC argue that Mr Justice Sheldon had failed to distinguish between ‘tasks and responsibilities’
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
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