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15 January 2025
Issue: 8100 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal
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Crown Court reform on the cards?

Lawyers have until 31 January to respond to Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review of the criminal courts.

The review, launched last month, considers how to deal with the increasing number of cases coming before the courts and the backlog of Crown Court cases that has built up. Long-term reforms could include creating an intermediate court or structural changes to the conduct of trials.

The backlog now stands at 74,000 cases, according to the latest official figures, which makes the government target of 53,000 cases by March impossible to achieve.

Sir Brian said this week: ‘We would encourage those responding to the call for evidence to be ambitious, and we welcome any ideas which challenge current thinking, are innovative, or which spotlight best practice and how it can be extended.’

Send responses to independentreviewcriminalcourts@justice.gov.uk.

Issue: 8100 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal
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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
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
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