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13 June 2025
Issue: 8120 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Civil way , Artificial intelligence , Family
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NLJ this week: Dogs, dates & debt-chasers

Deadlines are crucial, but how is the date and time determined? In this week’s NLJ, former district judge Stephen Gold explores a recent case in which solicitors made ‘an innocent day-counting mistake’. Gold notes that the case also sheds light on the need for ‘promptness’

He shares advice for ‘any practitioner arguing for or against the appointment of an intermediary for a vulnerable witness in family’, and urges them to study a particular Court of Appeal case. He remarks on ‘an essential case’ in the small claims track, involving an invention for canines, and also covers Garfield, an artificial intelligence (AI) debt-chasing lawyer now authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DAC Beachcroft—Paul Brehony

DAC Beachcroft—Paul Brehony

Commercial disputes practice expands with partner hire in London

Ward Hadaway—Maria Coster

Ward Hadaway—Maria Coster

Partner appointed to lead family and matrimonial department in Leeds

Slater Heelis—Helen Marsh

Slater Heelis—Helen Marsh

Commercial property team expands in Manchester with partner appointment

NEWS
Financial protections for domestic abuse victims would be strengthened and cohabiting couples be given inheritance and separation rights, under historic government proposals
Doctors and nurses could be sued for mistakes made by the artificial intelligence (AI) equipment they use to treat patients, researchers have warned
The law sector has been chosen as the testing ground for the government’s AI Growth Labs—speeding up development, testing and regulatory compliance so software can be market-ready more quickly
A range of options beyond burial, cremation and burial at sea could become legally available, under Law Commission recommendations
Artificial intelligence (AI) legal assistants will be deployed to cut delays in the Crown Court, ministers have announced
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