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06 September 2024 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8084 / Categories: Opinion , Profession , Litigation funding , In Court
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The insider: 6 September 2024

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Judges on the up, parties under pressure, and a robust approach to judicial conduct investigations. All this and more from Dominic Regan

Dame Amanda Yip is in the ascendancy. She was appointed to the High Court Bench in 2017 at the tender age of 48. At the beginning of next month she takes on the office of Deputy Senior Presiding Judge. I well recall her judgment in Young v Downey [2019] EWHC 3508 (QB), [2019] All ER (D) 95 (Dec). The daughter of a soldier killed by an IRA car bomb detonated in Hyde Park in the summer of 1982 sued the defendant for damages. He declined to participate in the action. The judge dealt superbly with both limitation and liability. She decided that fingerprint evidence found on car-parking tickets incriminated the defendant. Her analysis of relevant expert evidence was exquisite.

Yip J is certain to follow her father, Sir John Kay, up into the Court of Appeal. I see another Dame Sue Carr in the making; there is no higher

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Robert Dransfield

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Robert Dransfield

London medical negligence practice strengthened by senior partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—seven appointments

DAC Beachcroft—seven appointments

Firm boosts professional risk practice with team hire in Manchester, led by partner Ben Parks

Doyle Clayton—Benedicte Perowne

Doyle Clayton—Benedicte Perowne

Workplace law firm appoints new head of regulatory team

NEWS
A seemingly dry procedural update may prove potent. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold explains that new CPR 31.12A—part of the 193rd update—fills a ‘lacuna’ exposed in McLaren Indy v Alpa Racing
The long-running Mazur saga edged towards its finale as the Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether non-solicitors can ‘conduct litigation’. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School reports from a packed courtroom where 16 wigs watched Nick Bacon KC argue that Mr Justice Sheldon had failed to distinguish between ‘tasks and responsibilities’

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
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