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Civil way: 17 October 2025

17 October 2025 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 8135 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way , Housing
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Judge costs MoJ £3K; latest FPR PD update; new housing hazard law

TRIBUNAL JUDGE KEPT WAITING

When the Pensions Ombudsman makes an award for non-financial injustice caused by maladministration, how much are you likely to score? Nothing in a nominal injustice case. Otherwise, £500 if significant; £1,000 if serious; £2,000 if severe; and more than £2,000 if exceptional.

In Mr T v Ministry of Justice and XPS Pensions Consulting Ltd (CAS-45233-Y4G1), the applicant was a fee-paid tribunal judge and a member of the fee-paid judicial pension scheme. He received a benefit statement which was wrong, and delivered to the administrators XPS over 300 pages of documents to show why. It was all sorted—after six years. He sought £10,000 for exceptional distress and inconvenience, was offered £1,000 by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which was then increased to £1,500,

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Partner appointed as head of residential conveyancing for England

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

Specialist firm enhances corporate healthcare practice with partner appointment

NEWS
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School and the Frenkel Topping Group—AKA The insider—crowns Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP as his case of 2025 in his latest column for NLJ. The High Court’s decision—that non-authorised employees cannot conduct litigation, even under supervision—has sent shockwaves through the profession. Regan calls it the year’s defining moment for civil practitioners and reproduces a ‘cut-out-and-keep’ summary of key rulings from Mr Justice Sheldon
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