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06 December 2007
Issue: 7300 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Profession
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KEEP YOUR HAIR ON

In brief

Wigs in courts could be here to stay after a Bar Council survey showed overwhelming support for their retention for barristers in civil and family cases. The survey was carried out after the lord chief justice’s announcement in July that court dress worn by judges sitting in civil and family cases would be changed in January 2008. Judges sitting in these cases will wear a newly designed gown, but no wigs. The Bar Council received over 2,700 responses. Support for retention of the current full court dress was strongest for the higher courts (House of Lords, 64%), although 47% of respondents said it should also stay in the county court.

Issue: 7300 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Profession
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Jonathan Askin

Hugh James—Jonathan Askin

London corporate and commercial team announces partner appointment

Michelman Robinson—Daniel Burbeary

Michelman Robinson—Daniel Burbeary

Firm names partner as London office managing partner

Kingsley Napley—Jonathan Grimes

Kingsley Napley—Jonathan Grimes

Firm appoints new head of criminal litigation team

NEWS
Personal injury lawyers have welcomed a government U-turn on a ‘substantial prejudice’ defence that risked enabling defendants in child sexual abuse civil cases to have proceedings against them dropped
Children can claim for ‘lost years’ damages in personal injury cases, the Supreme Court has held in a landmark judgment
The cab-rank rule remains a bulwark of the rule of law, yet lawyers are increasingly judged by their clients’ causes. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, warns that conflating representation with endorsement is a ‘clear and present danger’
Holiday lets may promise easy returns, but restrictive covenants can swiftly scupper plans. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Francis of Serle Court recounts how covenants limiting use to a ‘private dwelling house’ or ‘private residence’ have repeatedly defeated short-term letting schemes
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already embedded in the civil courts, but regulation lags behind practice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ben Roe of Baker McKenzie charts a landscape where AI assists with transcription, case management and document handling, yet raises acute concerns over evidence, advocacy and even judgment-writing
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