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08 July 2016 / Professor 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

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NEWS
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, and Solicitor General, Andy Slaughter KC MP, marked the 25th anniversary of Pro Bono Week by joining lawyers, charities, students and parliamentarians at events celebrating voluntary legal work
Witness evidence can be compromised by AI before a solicitor sees the draft, leaving safeguards focused on authorship incomplete
Possession claims are entering a new digital era, with procedural traps awaiting practitioners who assume familiar rules still govern every step
A polished legal defence may owe more to artificial intelligence than legal merit—and creditors risk paying the price in delay and expense
An indemnity costs battle with a £20m gap could reopen an important question: what weight should an approved budget carry?
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