Litigation/Dispute Resolution

AI is set to change the way lawyers and judges work, the Master of the Rolls said last week, predicting it will be used to take some – “at first, very minor” – judicial decisions.

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee yesterday published the draft rules that will govern the extension of fixed recoverable costs from October.

A law firm which started proceedings when its client did not have standing to bring them has been ordered to pay wasted costs because it failed to check this.

The High Court has upheld an injunction designed to protect a solicitor told to “mind your own fucking business, you little twat” when visiting a contested right of way from further abuse.

Litigators should know how much any case is going to cost before they even begin the process of budgeting, Sir Colin Birss, the deputy head of civil justice, has argued.

A High Court judge has expressed her “dismay” that there was no pre-trial review in a case that was discontinued on day four of a trial that had been listed several months earlier.

A disgraced struck-off solicitor has made a “concerted effort” to fraudulently obtain judgment from two courts in a bid to extract money to which he is not entitled, a court has ruled.

The High Court has sharply criticised two litigants in person for making “baseless accusations” that impugned the integrity of their opponent’s legal team.

Civil litigators will have until 29 September to issue claims if they want to avoid the new fixed recoverable costs but personal injury lawyers will not face a similar rush.

Anglo-Scottish firm Shepherd & Wedderburn has rejected criticism made by a High Court judge of its managing partner and a litigation partner.

A listed litigation funder has announced a £12m profit on a £4.5m investment in the litigation that followed the collapse of electronics retailer Comet.

The Law Commission has suggested widening its proposed ban on discrimination in arbitration from the appointment of arbitrators to the conduct of the arbitration generally.

The lower courts were wrong to strike out a small claim where the claimant failed to attend the trial personally but was represented by a lawyer, the Court of Appeal has held.

Completion of the court modernisation programme has been pushed back again, this time to March 2024, it has emerged – in a blog, rather than a Ministry of Justice annoucement.

A full review of the reserved legal activities is not justified at the moment without a “fundamental” reappraisal of the Legal Services Act too, the Legal Services Board has concluded.