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06 February 2026
Issue: 8148 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Civil way , Landlord&tenant , Artificial intelligence
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NLJ this week: Civil procedure—sharp elbows & sharper warnings

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From fake authorities to rent reform, the civil courts have had a busy start to 2026. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold surveys a procedural landscape where guidance, discretion and discipline are all under strain

Counsel may welcome the easing of signature requirements in the Court of Appeal, but patience is thin elsewhere: emails sent to the wrong address will be ignored, and replacement skeletons are now firmly on the radar.

The column’s sharpest sting is reserved for ‘making them up’—a spate of fake authorities, including one slipped in by a solicitor, prompting wasted costs and public censure. Generative AI looms large, with Bar Council ‘guidance’ that is helpfully labelled as not really guidance at all.

Elsewhere, Gold flags the coming ban on ‘rentzumping’, new tenant information duties with penalties of up to £7,000, and a reminder that fixed costs do not cover every procedural misadventure.

Issue: 8148 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Civil way , Landlord&tenant , Artificial intelligence
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