Writing in NLJ this week, columnist Jon Robins, talks about the long struggle for justice as depicted in film director Daniel Gordon’s two-hour documentary Hillsborough, shown on BBC2 this month. The families were given legal aid for the 2016 inquests but it was not like that the first round, when the families managed to raise £150,000 for one barrister and then discovered at the inquests that the police had ten barristers, all paid for by the state. Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary, is urging cross-party support for amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill to make misconduct in public office a criminal offence.
20 May 2016
Hillsborough
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Laytons ETL—Maximilian Kraitt
Commercial firm strengthens real estate disputes team with associate hire
Switalskis—three appointments
Firm appoints three directors to board
Browne Jacobson—seven promotions
Six promoted to partner and one to legal director across UK and Ireland offices
NEWS
From blockbuster judgments to procedural shake-ups, the courts are busy reshaping litigation practice. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School hails the Court of Appeal's 'exquisite judgment’ in Mazur restoring the role of supervised non-qualified staff, and highlights a ‘mammoth’ damages ruling likened to War and Peace, alongside guidance on medical reporting fees, where a pragmatic 25% uplift was imposed
Momentum is building behind proposals to restrict children’s access to social media—but the legal and practical challenges are formidable. In NLJ this week, Nick Smallwood of Mills & Reeve examines global moves, including Australia’s under-16 ban and the UK's consultation
Reforms designed to rebalance landlord-tenant relations may instead penalise leaseholders themselves. In this week's NLJ, Mike Somekh of The Freehold Collective warns that the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 risks creating an ‘underclass’ of resident-controlled freehold companies
Timing is everything—and the Court of Appeal has delivered clarity on when proceedings are ‘brought’. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ, Stephen Gold explains that a claim is issued for limitation purposes when the claim form is delivered to the court, even if fees are underpaid
The traditional ‘single, intensive day’ of financial dispute resolution (FDR) may be due for a rethink. Writing in NLJ this week, Rachel Frost-Smith and Lauren Guiler of Birketts propose a ‘split FDR’ model, separating judicial evaluation from negotiation
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