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NLJ this week: Claimant issues, employment guidance & trade mark wisdom

14 February 2025
Issue: 8104 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Former district judge Stephen Gold highlights some unplanned side-effects of proposed legislation to include the names of claimants in the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, in this week’s NLJ.

Gold’s Civil Way column warns that claimants may be ‘bombarded at the wrong office by registry snoopers’. He also covers the latest on leasehold reforms, the Ogden tables, and a double serving of recently issued guidance—on communicating with employment tribunal staff and, from the president, on taking oral evidence from persons abroad.

Gold also covers the cloudy lemon cider dispute between Thatchers and Aldi, noting that when Thatchers launched its drink in 2020, it ‘took the wise step of registering its packaging design as a trade mark’, which helped it win its infringement case.

He writes: ‘A flurry of trade mark applications to protect packaging designs can be expected on the back of Thatchers’ success: not hitherto a practice invariably adopted.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
The Court of Protection has ruled in Macpherson v Sunderland City Council that capacity must be presumed unless clearly rebutted. In this week's NLJ, Sam Karim KC and Sophie Hurst of Kings Chambers dissect the judgment and set out practical guidance for advisers faced with issues relating to retrospective capacity and/or assessments without an examination
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
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