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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

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
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
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
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
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