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03 September 2021
Issue: 7946 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Legal aid focus
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NLJ this week: Access to justice & digitalisation

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In the third instalment of his series on access to justice and digital technologies, Roger Smith asks whether the Lord Chancellor is tilting his hat at high-fee international commercial work at the expense of smaller domestic claims

Smith writes that the government is courting oligarchs while closing magistrates’ courts. He says this raises five separate issues, which he goes on to explain. For example, ‘commendable attempts to provide special additional services like digital assistance for those who need them’ have been ‘half-hearted’.

He writes: ‘You can bet your bottom dollar that, untrammelled by prior clear objectives, beset by the impact of COVID (with which, in fact, the partially completed digitalisation programme provided some much-appreciated assistance), the courts will be squeezed for more savings.’

Issue: 7946 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Legal aid focus
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Seddons GSC—Ben Marks

Seddons GSC—Ben Marks

Partner joins residential real estate team

Winckworth Sherwood—Shazia Bashir

Winckworth Sherwood—Shazia Bashir

Social housing team announces partner appointment

University of Manchester: The LLM driving tech-focused career growth

University of Manchester: The LLM driving tech-focused career growth

Manchester’s online LLM has accelerated career progression for its graduates

NEWS
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has narrowly preserved a key weapon in its anti-corruption arsenal. In this week's NLJ, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers examines Guralp Systems Ltd v SFO, in which the High Court ruled that a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) remained in force despite the company’s failure to disgorge £2m by the stated deadline
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
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