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08 July 2016 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7706 / Categories: Features , Wills & Probate
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The inconvenient truth

Dominic Regan discusses strange & unusual deaths

Death can be slightly inconvenient. It is not unknown in protracted hearings for the parties to insure the life of the judge. Should the worst occur, there will be a payout to meet the irrecoverable costs of having to start all over again. I have long wondered whether the judge concerned has to submit themselves to a medical examination, every orifice being probed. Insurance companies are notoriously cautious and would not wish to take on a risk that might prove to be a dead cert, as it were.

A lawyer who died in tragic circumstances was Garry Hoy, a partner in a Toronto law firm. His office was on the 24th floor of the Toronto–Dominion Centre, an impressive skyscraper you can inspect with Google Street View. Potential trainees were having a conducted tour of his firm. Garry was impressed by the fact that the windows were made of unbreakable glass. Bravado got the better of him and he decided to demonstrate this feature by running at and throwing

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Sidley—James Inness

Sidley—James Inness

Partner joins capital markets team in London office

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Firm announces appointment of partner as UK general counsel

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Firm appoints first chief marketing officer to drive growth strategy

NEWS
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
The long-running Mazur saga edged towards its finale as the Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether non-solicitors can ‘conduct litigation’. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School reports from a packed courtroom where 16 wigs watched Nick Bacon KC argue that Mr Justice Sheldon had failed to distinguish between ‘tasks and responsibilities’

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

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
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