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The insider: 14 November 2025

14 November 2025 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8139 / Categories: Opinion , Profession , Legal services , Costs , Fees
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Mazur is still grabbing all the headlines. And rightly so, says Dominic Regan, amid rumblings that the decision was wrongly decided

There is more to litigation life than Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP [2025] EWHC 2341 (KB), although it is impossible to avoid the torrent of material it continues to generate.

The decision is not being appealed. It is binding on masters and district judges. Regional Costs Judge Richard Lumb, speaking at the end of last month, explained that he was duty-bound to apply the decision, and said he had done so in a possession case before him where it was obvious from the costs schedule that a grade D fee earner had conducted throughout. Consequently, costs claimed in the region of £3,000 were not allowed. All that could be recovered were fixed costs which, inclusive of the court issue fee, came to less than £500.

Last week, I had the luxury of hosting a discussion about Mazur with Ben Williams KC of 4 New Square

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NEWS
Early determination is no longer a novelty in arbitration. In NLJ this week, Gustavo Moser, arbitration specialist lawyer at Lexis+, charts the global embrace of summary disposal powers, now embedded in the Arbitration Act 1996 and mirrored worldwide. Tribunals may swiftly dismiss claims with ‘no real prospect of succeeding’, but only if fairness is preserved
The Ministry of Justice is once again in the dock as access to justice continues to deteriorate. NLJ consultant editor David Greene warns in this week's issue that neither public legal aid nor private litigation funding looks set for a revival in 2026
Civil justice lurches onward with characteristic eccentricity. In his latest Civil Way column, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist, surveys a procedural landscape featuring 19-page bundle rules, digital possession claims, and rent laws he labels ‘bonkers’
Can a chief constable be held responsible for disobedient officers? Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth, professor of public law at De Montfort University, examines a Court of Appeal ruling that answers firmly: yes
Neurotechnology is poised to transform contract law—and unsettle it. Writing in NLJ this week, Harry Lambert, barrister at Outer Temple Chambers and founder of the Centre for Neurotechnology & Law, and Dr Michelle Sharpe, barrister at the Victorian Bar, explore how brain–computer interfaces could both prove and undermine consent
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