Privacy

As the courts juggle the principles of open justice & confidentiality, a piecemeal approach to privacy has emerged: Ian Gascoigne asks whether a simpler, more predictable system is overdue

Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design

In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains

The Afghan leak super-injunction highlights the growing body of national security law spanning ever-increasing areas of practice, write Sailesh Mehta & Theo Burges

Self-disclosure in a reputational crisis: Hanna Basha & Jamie Hurworth weigh up the benefits & pitfalls

Writing in NLJ this week, Hanna Basha and Jamie Hurworth of Payne Hicks Beach dissect TV chef John Torode’s startling decision to identify himself in a racism investigation he denied. In an age of ‘cancel culture’, they argue, self-disclosure can both protect and imperil reputations

The Court of Appeal has confirmed the judiciary’s discretion to grant anonymity orders to vulnerable claimants in personal injury claims, in a landmark judgment

Natalie Todd & Nicholas Bortman on the extraordinary measures parties are taking to gather evidence

The murky rise of unlawfully obtained evidence in litigation is explored in this week's NLJ by Natalie Todd of Cooke, Young & Keidan and Nicholas Bortman of Raedas. From hacked emails to covert recordings and pretexting, investigators are pushing legal boundaries—and courts in England and beyond are increasingly admitting such material if it serves the public interest, even as they condemn the methods used

The High Court has lifted a two-year super-injunction concealing the leak of a Ministry of Defence (MoD) list of more than 18,000 Afghan nationals who assisted British forces against the Taliban