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The insider: 4 April 2025

04 April 2025 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8111 / Categories: Opinion , Legal services , Profession
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In his latest column, Dominic Regan laments the sorry state of the Royal Courts of Justice & presents a challenge to the High Court bench

On arriving at the Royal Courts of Justice last month, I was surprised to see a stern new notice at the entrance. Knuckledusters and fireworks are, among other items, no longer welcome. I blame Brexit.

The great palace of law is a sorry shadow of what it once was. The Great Hall, 70 metres long and 25 metres high, was deserted. Few courts were in operation. I saw from the daily list that some hearings were being conducted remotely.

Mrs Justice Steyn was however sitting in Court 13, presiding over a libel action brought by an actor, Noel Clarke, against Guardian News and Media Limited (I intend to comment on the case once judgment is delivered). Meanwhile, I was surprised to see two large screens displaying in legible text the paragraph in a witness statement which was the subject of cross-examination. This was a novelty

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NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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
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
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
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
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