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The insider: 17 May 2024

17 May 2024 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8071 / Categories: Opinion , Privacy , In Court
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Dominic Regan (not pictured) takes us on a rollercoaster ride of celebrity tipples & strange judicial behaviour

Hugh Grant has stolen my thunder. For the past 25 years, I have sought to explain the wonders of Pt 36. Last month he introduced the measure to the British public. He explained that he had been compelled to settle his phone-hacking action against The Sun. Those dreadful defendants had made what he described as an ‘enormous’ Pt 36 offer. He had been compelled to accept since he would otherwise have faced a multimillion-pound adverse costs liability. One can take it that the offer was perhaps double what a judge would award and so there was zero prospect of him beating the offer to settle. The last time I saw him with his wife was at the River Café, where I was celebrating my birthday. I had a glass of champagne. Intriguingly, the Grants—who were at the next table—each had a bottle of beer. Strange but true.

A number of High Court judges

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Head of corporate promoted to director

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Firm strengthens international arbitration team with key London hire

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

FCA contentious financial regulation lawyer joins the team as of counsel

NEWS
Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now confirmed that offering a disabled employee a trial period in an alternative role can itself be a 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act 2010: in this week's NLJ, Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve analyses the evolving case law
Caroline Shea KC and Richard Miller of Falcon Chambers examine the growing judicial focus on 'cynical breach' in restrictive covenant cases, in this week's issue of NLJ
Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design
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