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14 February 2025
Issue: 8104 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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NLJ this week: Claimant issues, employment guidance & trade mark wisdom

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

Womble Bond Dickinson—Paula Myers

Womble Bond Dickinson—Paula Myers

Womble Bond Dickinson appoints Paula Myers to private capital team in Leeds

mfg Solicitors—five promotions

mfg Solicitors—five promotions

Law firm mfg Solicitors announces five promotions at Birmingham office

Brabners—six promotions

Brabners—six promotions

Brabners adds six to partnership in record year for partner promotions

NEWS
Calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 have been renewed, with the Bar Council arguing the current threshold criminalises children too early and risks pushing them towards lifelong offending
The legal profession's AI challenge extends far beyond fabricated case citations, according to a warning about the next phase of technological risk
Law firms should use the transition period before the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) assumes anti-money laundering (AML) supervision to strengthen governance and compliance, experts have warned
Cross-border disputes increasingly demand creative approaches to gathering evidence, with litigators needing to look beyond traditional letters of request
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified the distinction between contracts of 'indefinite' and 'perpetual' duration, with potentially significant implications for commercial drafting
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