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Law digests: 5 & 12 January 2024

12 January 2024
Issue: 8054 / Categories: Case law , In Court , Law digest
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Confidential information

The Duke of Sussex and others v Mgn Ltd [2023] EWHC 3217 (Ch), [2023] All ER (D) 94 (Dec)

The Chancery Division made rulings concerning the use of voice mail interference (VMI) and unlawful information gathering (UIG). The claimants were four of many claimants in the fourth wave of the Mirror Newspapers hacking litigation, including the Duke of Sussex. The litigation arose from allegations of phone hacking made by previous claimants against journalists, managers and editors of the three national Mirror Group newspapers (The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The People) and involved private investigators or agencies instructed by them. The allegations included the hacking of the claimants’ and their identified associates’ mobile telephones. The court held that VMI had remained an important tool of the kind of journalism that was being practised at all three newspapers up to and to a limited extent even during the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking, and it had been fed by extensive UIG. Although there had been VMI and UIG

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS
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After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously
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