THIS ISSUE
An open and rigorous process of accountability of the 22,000 judges in England & Wales is essential if public trust is to be maintained, John Gould, senior partner at Russell-Cooke, writes in this week’s NLJ
The career freedom on offer to lawyers today would have been unrecognisable 25 years ago
Politicians love to look tough on crime and penal policy, but it’s a lamentable tradition, NLJ columnist Jon Robins writes this week
The Law Commission is extending its timetable for choosing its 14th Programme of law reform after receiving about 500 responses covering nearly 200 possibilities for law reform
2021 broke recruitment records for employment lawyers, according to research by market analytics firm Vacancysoft
Low-income individuals with ‘trapped capital’ are unable to access legal aid in 30% of cases, research by the Public Law Project has found
The cap on the number of days the Crown Court can sit during a financial year has been lifted for a second year, in order to tackle the backlog of cases
Proposed clinical negligence costs reforms are ‘unfair’ to injured patients and families of patients who have died, and would act as a barrier to access to justice, personal injury lawyers have warned
The majority of solicitors grew fee income during the pandemic, according to the Law Society’s annual Law Management Section Financial Benchmarking Survey
Targets should be set for the length of time to complete certain criminal cases, such as rape, MPs have told ministers
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Hugh James—Jonathan Askin
London corporate and commercial team announces partner appointment
Michelman Robinson—Daniel Burbeary
Firm names partner as London office managing partner
Kingsley Napley—Jonathan Grimes
Firm appoints new head of criminal litigation team
NEWS
Personal injury lawyers have welcomed a government U-turn on a ‘substantial prejudice’ defence that risked enabling defendants in child sexual abuse civil cases to have proceedings against them dropped
Children can claim for ‘lost years’ damages in personal injury cases, the Supreme Court has held in a landmark judgment
Holiday lets may promise easy returns, but restrictive covenants can swiftly scupper plans. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Francis of Serle Court recounts how covenants limiting use to a ‘private dwelling house’ or ‘private residence’ have repeatedly defeated short-term letting schemes
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already embedded in the civil courts, but regulation lags behind practice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ben Roe of Baker McKenzie charts a landscape where AI assists with transcription, case management and document handling, yet raises acute concerns over evidence, advocacy and even judgment-writing
The cab-rank rule remains a bulwark of the rule of law, yet lawyers are increasingly judged by their clients’ causes. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian McDougall, president of the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, warns that conflating representation with endorsement is a ‘clear and present danger’
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