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10 December 2025
Issue: 8143 / Categories: Legal News , Technology , Procedure & practice , Housing
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Vos MR calls for responses on online procedure rules

Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, has asked lawyers to respond to a five-week consultation on ‘very straightforward’ online procedure rules

The Online Procedure Rules Committee consultation, launched last week and due to close on 15 January, covers the ‘basic general’ rules for online civil, family and tribunal proceedings, Sir Geoffrey said.

The online rules ‘will be far more simple and accessible than the current Civil Procedure Rules’, he said; for example, that parties have duties to ‘take all reasonable steps to settle their disputes’. View the draft rules here.

Sir Geoffrey, speaking at the Housing Law Practitioners’ Association conference last week, said the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, which will end ‘no fault evictions’ in May, ‘will undoubtedly create more contested possession cases than we have had hitherto’.

He said the ‘first iteration’ of the online platform for property and possession claims is expected in the late spring of 2026.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Switalskis—Naila Arif, Harriet Findlay & Ellie Thompson

Firm awards training contracts to paralegals through internal programme

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Ward Hadaway—Matthew Morton

Private client disputes specialist joins commercial litigation team

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Thomson Hayton Winkley—Nina Hood

Cumbria firm appoints new head of residential property

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Family law must shift from conflict-driven litigation to child-centred problem-solving, according to a major new report. Writing in NLJ this week, Caroline Bowden of Anthony Gold outlines findings showing overwhelming support for reform, with 92% agreeing lawyers owe duties to children as well as clients
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