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19 November 2025
Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Health & safety , Family
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Lady Chief Justice stresses security concerns for judges

Judges have had to work in ‘an increasingly challenging landscape’ in the past year, facing ‘inaccurate and unfair criticism, sometimes personal, with associated security threats’, the Lady Chief Justice has said

In her annual report, issued last week, Baroness Carr’s foreword notes that the Ministry of Justice has now committed capital funding to make courts and tribunals safer. Meanwhile, the new security taskforce led by Lady Justice Yip is working with police to improve protection and has launched digital security training for judges.

Baroness Carr highlighted ‘essential funding requirements’ in the civil and family courts and tribunals, including that ‘digitisation in the county court remains incomplete’. In the family justice system, however, the less adversarial Pathfinder courts have been ‘a resounding success’ with caseloads falling 50%.

Issue: 8140 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Health & safety , Family
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Firm awards training contracts to paralegals through internal programme

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Private client disputes specialist joins commercial litigation team

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Cumbria firm appoints new head of residential property

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Family law must shift from conflict-driven litigation to child-centred problem-solving, according to a major new report. Writing in NLJ this week, Caroline Bowden of Anthony Gold outlines findings showing overwhelming support for reform, with 92% agreeing lawyers owe duties to children as well as clients
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