THE (NOT SO) LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 26: GABOR COVAKS: THE MANDOLIN PLAYING SOLICITOR’S TALE
The Club may be unique in legal history because, in addition to promoting knowledge and skills about litigation, the constitution also has the aims of promoting laywers playing and listening to mandolin music. That is just one of the reasons…
AUTOMATIC STAY OF POSSESSION HEARINGS APPLIES TO APPEALS: COURT OF APPEAL DECISION THIS MORNING
In London Borough of Hackney -v- Okoro [2020] EWCA Civ 681 the Court of Appeal found that the automatic stay on possession proceedings also applies to appeals against possession orders. THE CASE The Court of Appeal were asked…
CIVIL UPDATE FOR NORTH AND WEST YORKSHIRE: UPDATED GUIDANCE FROM THE DESIGNATED CIVIL JUDGE
HHJ Gosnell has issued new guidance for civil courts in North and West Yorkshire. It is reproduced in full below. “Introduction The purpose of this document is to update you on events since my last update on 6th April…
AMENDED LISTING PRIORITIES IN THE COUNTY COURT
The listing priorities in the county court were amended on 14.05.2020. “Introduction 1. Listing is a judicial function. 2. All applications/hearings/trials should be considered in advance by a judge in order for the judge to decide whether it should…
THE (NOT SO) LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 25: CLAIRE GREEN: THE COST LAWYER’S TALE (OR TWO TAILS IN FACT)
Our club is going to need a costs lawyer or two. So for our first costs lawyer member I went straight to the top. Claire Green is currently Chairman of the Association of Costs Lawyers ( ACL) as well as…
HMCTS GUIDANCE “Keeping court and tribunal buildings safe, secure and clean”
HMCTS have recently updated their guidance about security, cleaning and social-distancing arrangements in court and tribunal buildings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Some of the guidance puts obligations on lawyers and court users. Having successfully avoided the pun for two…
THE (NOT SO) LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 24: ROBERT MALES: THE MANAGING PARTNER’S TALE
The latest member of our club is Robert Males. As you may be able to guess from the photo Robert is managing partner of Underwoods Solicitors of Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire and Cape Town, South Africa. Where are you working…
GENERAL GUIDANCE ON PDF BUNDLES FOR HEARINGS IN COURTS: GUIDANCE ISSUED TODAY
Mr Justice Mann has issued the following guidance on PDF bundles today. It provides practical guidance as to the matters that should be included in bundles, including the need for optical recognition, the need for the documents to be in…
THE (NOT SO) LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 23: SASHA BEAUMONT-HODGES: THE LAW STUDENT’S TALE
It is important for the future of the club that we encourage young members and are aware of the difficulties that they are going through at the moment. For that reason I invited law student Sasha Beaumont-Hughes to become a…
THE (NOT SO) LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 22: PAUL MAGRATH: THE LAW REPORTER’S TALE
It occurred to me that a law reporter would would be a very helpful, in not essential, addition to our club ( I have checked and the club rules allow this). So I asked Paul Magrath to join. Paul is…
COVID REPEATS 22: DRESSING FOR COURT: NO RIPPED JEANS, BUT NO TOP HAT, TAILS AND SPATS EITHER
I thought hard about whether repeating a post about dressing for court is appropriate for the current times. We will have to go back to court one day, and current guidance dictates that (the top half of us at least)…
COVID REPEATS 21: OPENING LINES OF JUDGMENTS (WITH SOME NEW ONES THROWN IN): BJORN AGAIN
Today we are looking at opening lines of judgment. We also have a new opening line from earlier this year. ABBA: (ALTHOUGH THE WINNER DIDN’T TAKE IT ALL…) In April this year in a judgment about an inheritance dispute…
COVID REPEATS 20: CIVIL LITIGATION BRIEF 26 YEARS AGO: PROCEDURAL DEVELOPMENT IN 1994
Six years ago I reviewed the annual output of Civil Litigation Brief in 1994 so, in essence, this is a repeat of a repeat. There were no “blogs” back. Twenty six ago CLB was a monthly column in the Solicitors…
CHALLENGES TO THE VALIDITY OF PRACTICE DIRECTION MADE AS A RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS: THIS IS A PILOT SCHEME
In Arkin -v- Marshall [2020] EWCA Civ 620 the Court of Appeal rejected an argument that Practice Direction 51Z was ultra vires. The Practice Direction which provides for a stay of possession proceedings during the coronavirus crisis was held to…
THE (NOT SO) LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 21: DONNA SCULLY: FROM DUBLIN TO LIVERPOOL
Our newest member practices in Liverpool. Donna Scully. Originally from Dublin Donna qualified as a solicitor at the age of 30 and is now director of the Carpenters Group. I am Irish, from Dublin. I am a joint owner/Director…
COVID REPEATS 18: “BEHIND THE DIFFIDENT SMILE OF THE SHYEST JUNIOR IS A CONCEIT OF NAPOLEONIC PROPORTIONS”
Today we travel to Australia and looking again at guidance given by the Hon Chief Justice Pat Keane in his keynote address to the Australian Lawyers Alliance Queensland State Conference in February 2013. Remember the main aim of these posts…
THE (NOT SO) LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 20: SNIGDHA NAG: THE LAW LECTURER’S VIEW
It is well known that the constitution of the Club requires us to “encourage and educate the legal profession and public in the importance and rules of civil procedure”. Naturally, therefore, the Club needs law lecturers to help us in…
COVID REPEATS 17: SEDLEY’S LAW OF DOCUMENTS
It was clearly his extensive experience with trial bundles that led Sedley L.J. to write “Sedley’s Laws of Documents”. These are laws that should be considered, in detail, by every litigator. For many, many years, a post I wrote on…
COVID REPEATS 16: THE DOG THAT GOT A BETTER MASTER’S DEGREE THAN A WITNESS (WHEN WITNESSES DIG REALLY DEEP HOLES FOR THEMSELVES)
To lighten up a Saturday we are looking again at the judgment of Mr Justice Ramsey in BSky B -v- HP Enterprises Ltd [2010] EWHC 86 (TCC). This contains some interesting comments on the credibility of witnesses and how the…
THE NOT SO LONELY LITIGATOR’S CLUB 19: TIM O’CONNOR: BARRISTER ON THE CORK CIRCUIT
Our club has no jurisdictional boundaries*. So it was a pleasure to ask Tim O’Connor a barrister at the Bar of Ireland,on the Cork Circuit, to become our latest member. Tim specialises in judicial review and sports law. He has…