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A new dawn for disclosure

10 November 2017 / Ed Crosse
Issue: 7769 / Categories: Opinion , E-disclosure , Profession , Budgeting
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It’s time for the profession & the judiciary to engage constructively to create a world class civil disputes regime, say Ed Crosse & David Bridge

Over the past couple of years there has been growing momentum for major change in the approach to disclosure of the courts in England and Wales. The proliferation of data exchanged between people and stored by individuals and companies has left the traditional approach to disclosure looking antiquated. The language of the current rules assumes that hard copy documents will be the norm, with a separate Practice Direction (PD) bolted on to cover electronic documents, which in truth now make up the vast majority. The entitlement to ‘inspect’ documents, rather than receive copies in native format complete with meta-data, is indicative of this, harking back to a period when lawyers visited each others’ offices to view lever arch files of material.

There have, of course, been changes in practice. The courts have accepted the reality of electronic disclosure and methods of searching for documents that,

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Jersey litigation lead appointed to global STEP Council

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

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Firm invests in future talent with new training cohort

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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