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NLJ this week: Litigation trends to watch out for in 2025

10 January 2025
Issue: 8099 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Litigation funding , Collective action , Legal services
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Should third-party funding be regulated? If so, how and by whom? This is just one of many thorny questions likely to occupy the minds of litigation lawyers in the year ahead, David Greene, NLJ consultant editor and senior partner at Edwin Coe, writes in this week’s issue.

Lawyers will also be keeping a close eye on any developments affecting collective actions, as well as the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology on civil disputes.

Greene writes: ‘One thing the Post Office scandal taught us is the danger of data inequality, that data can be manipulated but presented to the court as fact and the historic tendency for courts to accept that fact as a given. The requirements for judges to have a questioning mind is only heightened by AI which may reflect and amplify underlying biases.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has not done enough to protect the future sustainability of the legal aid market, MPs have warned
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously
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