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Fresh ground?

08 February 2013 / Andrew Parker
Issue: 7547 / Categories: Opinion , Legal services
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The legal profession needs to wake up and smell the coffee, warns Andrew Parker

Three years ago I warned in these pages that the broad recommendations of the Jackson Review of Civil Litigation Costs would be delivered (“Access all areas”, 160 NLJ 7408, p 366). In March 2011, the coalition government published the outline of its plans based on the report and, in May 2012, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 received the Royal Assent.

April in the offing

The planned implementation date of 1 April 2013 has been public knowledge since at least July 2012—it was certainly in the minds of the Court of Appeal when it delivered the initial decision in Simmons v Castle [2012] EWCA Civ 1039, [2012] All ER (D) 335 (Jul). The new Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, stated unequivocally to the Law Society’s Civil Litigation Conference in October that the rules would be in place for 1 April 2013.

However, recent coverage suggests that many lawyers are only now beginning to accept

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
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
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