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 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 »
CMCs are becoming more streamlined. I am sure this trend has been felt by litigants all around the country, but no more so than in Birmingham where His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC has published a new CMC notice, Case Management Conference Notice HHJ Simon Brown QC July 2013. The notice will be familiar to… Read More »
As this post is the 300th posted by me since we started the Smart E-Discovery blog, I thought all my kind readers had earned a light hearted piece. From time to time, I have used the image of the children’s game of Snakes and Ladders to illustrate the old way of carrying out litigation. To refresh… Read More »
If you are staying abreast of the development of best practice after the coming into effect of the Jackson reforms, you are presumably following the series of articles by the indefatigable Judge Simon Brown QC, head of the Mercantile Court in Birmingham. Simon Brown has written a number of articles on the subject which have… Read More »
I am an avid reader of the Sunday broadsheets. Try as I might, I cannot bring myself to read them electronically. The enjoyment gained from a stack of newsprint on a Sunday morning outweighs the irritationof the newsprint coming off on my fingers particularly when there is nothing better to do but eat my poached… Read More »
In 1848, a certain John Russell Bartlett published a Dictionary of Americanisms. Mr Bartlett has it that the phrase slick as a whistle is “a proverbial simile, in common use throughout the United States. To do anything as slick as a whistle, is to do it very smoothly, perfectly, adroitly.” Possibly because I do not… Read More »
In the most striking example to date of how seriously the judiciary intends to get to grips with the changes to the rules inspired by Lord Justice Jackson, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, has appointed five Court of Appeal judges to hear all appeals arising out of the reforms. Rupert Jackson had in fact recommended… Read More »
It is that time of year again when predictions are flying about and, as anyone who has been asked to make predictions will tell you, predictions do not get any easier. In fact, it has been said, “predictions are difficult, especially about the future.” You may imagine my delight when I heard that quotation at… Read More »
A sense of perspective is vital to the practice of law these days. In truth, it probably always was! Remember the Lone Ranger? You do not have to have been born in the 1950s and 1960s to remember the show as reruns of this popular series were being screened only a few years ago and,… Read More »