THIS ISSUE
While rare, the courts can make passport orders to prevent judgment debtors leaving the country. In this week’s NLJ, Chris Bryden and Clara Parry discuss the use of this legal technique and how these orders are enforced.
The government is considering cutting funding for level 7 apprenticeships, which could ‘seriously impact social mobility in the legal profession’, Rhicha Kapila, partner and chief operating officer at Bolt Burdon Kemp, writes in this week’s NLJ. Level 7, the highest level of apprenticeships, ‘create a qualification path for graduates’ that allows them to be paid while they train.
The personal injury discount rate was increased to 0.5% in January, based for the first time on a detailed report by an expert panel. In this week’s NLJ, Julian Chamberlayne wonders whether the decision-making is vulnerable to challenge by judicial review, and uncovers a multitude of weak spots.
There is an urgent need for clarity regarding the UK’s laws on the use of copyrighted material protection by artificial intelligence (AI) technology, writes Emma Kennaugh-Gallacher, senior professional support lawyer at Mewburn Ellis, in this week’s NLJ.
Horses for courses, a lid for every pot and costs lawyers for costs (regulated, of course). Otherwise, it could all turn into a shambles. In this week’s NLJ, Jack Ridgway, chair of the Association of Costs Lawyers and a senior associate costs lawyer at Bolt Burdon Kemp, highlights the perils of using an unregulated costs draftsman.
How will you spend your £4 Mastercard pay-out? Professor Dominic Regan, NLJ columnist, AKA 'The Insider', writes that the result of the collective action once put at £10bn and later settled for £200m renders it a ‘pointless exercise’.
How will you spend your £4 Mastercard payout? Dominic Regan tots up collective action anti-climaxes & laments expectation versus reality
Cutting apprenticeships is a step backwards for the profession & for social mobility, says Rhicha Kapila
Julian Chamberlayne reviews the new personal injury discount rate & highlights some potential weak spots
Chris Bryden & Clara Parry discuss the rare use of passport orders to prevent someone leaving the country—and how these orders are enforced
MOVERS & SHAKERS
London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy
Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year
Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles
Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family
Foot Anstey—five promotions
Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas
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
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
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’
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