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NLJ this week: Back in the day… ‘dearth’ of judges, courts like farmyard barns

10 June 2022
Issue: 7982 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Former District Judge Stephen Gold takes another spin in his Tardis this week, revisiting the lawyers of yore (actually 1859 and 1860), as part of an ongoing series to mark 200 years since the founding of NLJ in 1822

As the first street trams rolled down the streets of Birkenhead, The Law Times (forerunner of NLJ) announced plans to publish six-monthly volumes of law reports. The Lord Chief Justice, opening an assize in Guildford, complained it was more like a barn than a court. Overall, there was ‘a dearth of judges and insufficiency of judicial staff’. About 11,000 people per year were sent to prison for debt. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Taylor Rose—nine promotions

Taylor Rose—nine promotions

Leadership strengthened across core practice areas with nine new partners

Fieldfisher—Rebecca Maxwell

Fieldfisher—Rebecca Maxwell

Real estate team welcomes partner inBirmingham

Ward Hadaway—14 trainee solicitors

Ward Hadaway—14 trainee solicitors

Firm strengthens commitment to nurturing future legal talent

NEWS
Government plans for offender ‘restriction zones’ risk creating ‘digital cages’ that blur punishment with surveillance, warns Henrietta Ronson, partner at Corker Binning, in this week's issue of NLJ
Louise Uphill, senior associate at Moore Barlow LLP, dissects the faltering rollout of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 in this week's NLJ
Judgments are ‘worthless without enforcement’, says HHJ Karen Walden-Smith, senior circuit judge and chair of the Civil Justice Council’s enforcement working group. In this week's NLJ, she breaks down the CJC’s April 2025 report, which identified systemic flaws and proposed 39 reforms, from modernising procedures to protecting vulnerable debtors
Writing in NLJ this week, Katherine Harding and Charlotte Finley of Penningtons Manches Cooper examine Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26, the Supreme Court ruling that narrowed what counts as matrimonial property, and its potential impact upon claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
In this week's NLJ, Dr Jon Robins, editor of The Justice Gap and lecturer at Brighton University, reports on a campaign to posthumously exonerate Christine Keeler. 60 years after her perjury conviction, Keeler’s son Seymour Platt has petitioned the king to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy, arguing she was a victim of violence and moral hypocrisy, not deceit. Supported by Felicity Gerry KC, the dossier brands the conviction 'the ultimate in slut-shaming'
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