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17 November 2023 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 8049 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Civil way: 17 November 2023

Business as usual; New liability for employers; Latest FPR PD update; Bankruptcy annulment; Mission for no commission

LAWBITES

How’s it going? The Civil National Business Centre whose responsibilities include the issue of paper claims and enforcement applications has had time to bed in. The latest published weekly performance figures for paper business show that the number of working days from lodgement to issue etc is 11 for a new claim. For an acknowledgment of service,29; before issuing a directions questionnaire on paper after filing of defence,18 and for then processing the filed questionnaire, 38; from receipt of an application for order or comment being typed, 46; for a new ‘Help with Fees’ application,10; and for a charging order application, 23 and drawing a final charging order, 21. For litigation practitioners’ time off recovering from stress,14 days. For litigants causing a disturbance while protesting at delays, conditional discharge.

Follow the leader Family Division liaison judges have been rehandled. They are now to be known as family presiding judges, if you please,

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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