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31 October 2025 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 8137 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way , CPR
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Civil way: 31 October 2025

The N510: all you need to know; aim High; look, no witness!; interest on VAT.

TOO LATE FOR THE N510

Thou shalt give thanks for and honour form N510. Eh? It is the form under CPR 6.33 (and 6.32) which is to be filed with and accompany service of a claim form out of the jurisdiction without permission. It contains a statement of the grounds on which the claimant is entitled to serve out of the jurisdiction. Direct access counsel Patrick Boch’s attempts to rubbish the beloved N510 in Robertson v Google LLC [2025] EWCA Civ 1262—unimportant with just one box that had to be ticked; did not have to be properly completed in order to effect valid service; and had no practical implication or importance—did not go down well with Lord Justice Coulson. He and his colleagues are among members of the N510 Fan Club and regard it as very important.

The difficulty for the claimant in Robertson was that he needed an N510, and though

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Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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