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27 February 2020 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7877 / Categories: Opinion , Personal injury
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PI reforms: on the road to nowhere (Pt 2)

Dominic Regan hopes the proposed changes to injury litigation will be abandoned, not just postponed, before more damage is done

Members of the judiciary are surprisingly passionate. I wrote an article here last month about what I perceived to be problematic about impending changes to injury litigation. This provoked an outpouring, the likes of which I have not experienced in 30 years. Judges and lawyers made me aware of their own grave misgivings, now only partly alleviated by the government’s announcement last month that the proposed changes will be ushered in in August not April.

The problem highlighted by several is that the road traffic reforms whenever and however they are implemented will cause a logjam and district judges, already close to, if not at, breaking point, will be overwhelmed. In order to alleviate the burden upon the civil judiciary a concept called ‘Push Down’ has gained momentum. The idea is that work can be cascaded downwards. Some High Court cases could be remitted to the Circuit

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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