The ground-breaking judgment of the Supreme Court in R (Unison) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51 was central to the Justice Committee’s May report into government proposals to raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims, Patrick Allen, senior partner of Hodge, Jones & Allen, writes in NLJ this week. In Unison, the court ruled the government’s employment tribunal fees unlawful because they prevented access to justice. Allen writes that past and future civil justice reforms, such as fixed costs and the discount rate, ‘should all be subjected to a Unison test and dropped or amended if they fail’.
31 May 2018
Small claims should be put to the test
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck
Partner and Manchester office lead appointed head of family
Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale
DWF insurance services director appointed to Civil Justice Council
R3—Jodie Wildridge
Kings Chambers barrister appointed chair of R3 Yorkshire
NEWS
The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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