header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: The grey area of 'conducting litigation'

12 May 2023
Issue: 8024 / Categories: Legal News , Legal services , Regulatory
printer mail-detail
121668
What exactly are reserved legal activities (RLAs), and what is meant by ‘conducting litigation’? It’s an area of the law rife with uncertainties, as shown by the recent case of Baxter v Doble

Writing in this week’s NLJ, Iain Miller, partner, and Charlotte Judd, senior associate, Kingsley Napley, point out that ‘this case and previous authorities have demonstrated that the framework of RLAs under Legal Services Act 2007 is full of grey areas as to when a practitioner does and does not fall on the right side of the line, with potentially very serious repercussions if one gets this wrong’.

Miller and Judd draw out some of the main elements at play when weighing up whether or not litigation is being conducted. In Baxter v Doble, the judge held Mrs Doble and her company were conducting litigation but did not know they were and could not have been reasonably expected to know they were doing so.

Miller and Judd write: ‘The confusing state of the law was a key feature in this conclusion being reached.’ 

Read more on reserved legal activities here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll