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21 January 2022 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 7963 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Civil Way: 21 January 2022

Possessions and Covid; More inquest legal aid; New contempt forms; Possession defence test; Dissolved companies caught

WHILE YOU WEREN’T LOOKING

Possessed! No mercy for housing practitioners and their clients. The temporary coronavirus residential possession PD 55C whose life was extended to 30 November 2021 has not quite fully lapsed as expected. CPR update 137 has seen to that in continuing the PD in relation to all claims issued before 1 December 2021 with no cut-off date as yet and the requirement for claimants to provide notices with the claim form and at the hearing about their knowledge of the effect of the pandemic on the defendant (see the PD at paras 6.1 and 6.2) until 30 June 2022.

Cracks in person The 138th CPR update burst into force at 8.00 am on 8 December 2021 and you never noticed. It introduces amendments to PD 51R and that is about the online civil money claims pilot which you will never hear about unless you drink with LiPs. The pilot is open

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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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