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NLJ this week: Building digital bridges to justice

31 October 2025
Issue: 8137 / Categories: Legal News , Technology , Rule of law , Artificial intelligence , Legal services
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With chronic underfunding and rising demand leaving thousands without legal help, technology could transform access to justice—if handled wisely, writes Professor Sue Prince of the University of Exeter in this week's NLJ

The new Online Procedure Rule Committee (OPRC), created under the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022, proposes inclusive digital standards and partnerships linking pre-action platforms, ombuds services and the courts. Prince argues for collaboration between public and private providers to create interoperable systems that ensure reliable, affordable online pathways for litigants.

While initiatives from the Ministry of Justice and Lawtech UK promise innovation, most legal tech still targets commercial users, leaving individuals behind. The challenge, Prince warns, is not just digital inclusion but credibility: without trustworthy, accessible tools co-designed with NGOs and practitioners, the justice gap will only widen—a digital divide in the making. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Head of corporate promoted to director

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Firm strengthens international arbitration team with key London hire

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

FCA contentious financial regulation lawyer joins the team as of counsel

NEWS
Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now confirmed that offering a disabled employee a trial period in an alternative role can itself be a 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act 2010: in this week's NLJ, Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve analyses the evolving case law
Caroline Shea KC and Richard Miller of Falcon Chambers examine the growing judicial focus on 'cynical breach' in restrictive covenant cases, in this week's issue of NLJ
Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design
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