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10 January 2025
Issue: 8099 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Litigation funding , Collective action , Legal services
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NLJ this week: Litigation trends to watch out for in 2025

202810
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

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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