Category Archives: Law & law makers

Court fees boost to mediation

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…

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 »

Who will bid more than £10 million?

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 »

Open All Hours

 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 »

Mitchell Round Up

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 »

Too soon to say

“It is too soon to say.” Attributed to the former Chinese Premier, Chou en Lai (or Zhou Enlai), this response was, probably erroneously, thought to have referred to the effect of the 1789 French Revolution!  These days, it appears to be more widely accepted that the words referred to the street protests in France and… Read More »

TCC Protocols

Early this month new protocols for dealing with eDisclosure were unveiled by a combination of TeCSA (The Technology and Construction Solicitors’ Association), TECBAR (The Technology and Construction Bar Association) and the SCL (The Society for Computers and Law). The incoming senior judge in the TCC, Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart, confirmed that the Protocols would have the… Read More »

Gunpowder, Treason and Plot

The past week has seen Hallowe’en and Bonfire Night. Ghouls and spooks and the sometimes dubious game of trick or treat abound which shows how much has changed in this country since the days when virtually no one in England took any notice of Hallowe’en (although my understanding is that north of the border, the Scots… Read More »

More and better for less

The new Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is already out of the starting blocks! Taking office at the start of October, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd (a small village in the Brecon Beacons) addressed the members of Gray’s Inn on October 21st.  Delivering the annual Birkenhead lecture,  he sought to address the issues facing the… Read More »