Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court, said last week (see Law Gazette http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/neuberger-backs-compulsory-mediation-for-more-civil-cases/5048784.article ) that we should be uninhibited about more mediation in civil and family matters. While stopping short of calling for compulsory mediation for all, his views suggest a judiciary which is starting to recognise the success story which is mediation. Lower… Read More »
With the speed of the fanatic, the Government has confirmed a massive rise in the cost of civil litigation with effect from next Monday March 9th, rather earlier than originally announced. According to the Law Society, whose table is reproduced below, some civil court fees will rise by 622% and even the smallest increase is… Read More »
In case you missed it, there has been (or there will soon be) a sea change in the rules relating to E-Discovery in the United States. Some readers may think that what happens over there does not concern us over here. Others realise that what happens over there, often comes over here in due course… Read More »
With apologies to Winston Churchill, never in the field of litigation has so much been owed to so few. I have been away from the world of blogging and most other forms of social media for some months. It has been a liberating experience which has allowed me to think about the world I used… Read More »
Some time way back last year, there was dissatisfaction expressed in certain quarters that a two-tier system was evolving in relation to the cases which were to be the subject of the cost budgeting rules introduced as part of the Jackson Big Bang reforms. Put simply, while the “smaller” cases were to be subject to… Read More »
The Aussies have done it again! Not satisfied with trouncing Cook’s boys 5-0 in the recent Ashes series (I prefer not to mention the one day series and the T20, poor as they were, because it is the result of the five match Ashes series which hurts), the New South Wales Attorney General has announced that a Virtual Registry is now… Read More »
In various posts last year I highlighted the views of Casey Flaherty, General Counsel of Kia Motors America, Inc. Casey espouses the view that lawyers who want to work for his company need to understand that the world has changed and that with it comes the responsibility to understand the contribution which technology can make… Read More »
Over the past weeks, my email inbox has been inundated with advertisements for products, invitations to events and parties and general exhortations to visit this booth and that at Legal Tech 2014. The event is taking place this week in New York. Billed as the premier legal technology show on Earth, the gathering takes place at the Hilton… Read More »
A little later than normal, I have remembered it is the time of year for predictions. Usually this happens in December or early January so, on any view, I am a fraction late this year. The Society of Computers and Law publishes predictions gleaned from a number of people in the IT and E discovery industry… Read More »
In the wake of the Mitchell case, my attention has been drawn to a really useful updater blog posted by barrister Gordon Exall, which currently lists the decisions in five subsequent cases around the country, all of which feature some kind of sanction or relief from sanction for procedural breach. The post is entitled Mitchell: Case… Read More »