header-logo header-logo

Strange but true

08 January 2016 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7681 / Categories: Features
printer mail-detail
nlj_7681_backpage

Dominic Regan casts a playful eye over (judicial) crimes & misdemeanors which made headlines in 2015

What a strange year we had in 2015! The oddity being that the judiciary created the problems rather than resolved them. A vast amount of legal effort was thrown at Coventry and others v Lawrence and another [2015] UKSC 50 [2015] All ER (D) 234 (Jul) which came to nothing. I blame Lord Neuberger. Nothing personal mind. In July 2014 he gave a judgment in the substantive dispute which was about the law of nuisance. In concluding, he wondered aloud whether the conditional fee regime might offend Art 6. It could be said that the other side might be intimidated by the extra costs burden which a successful litigant would inflict. Let us adjourn and hear detailed argument, he directed.

Seven months later, seven judges heard submissions from the 23 barristers in court who were fed fine lines by 15 solicitors. The 5-2 majority found that the system of recoverability, in place since 2000, was not unlawful and so we

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

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
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
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
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
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
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll