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NLJ this week: Pay your debt or surrender your passport

07 February 2025
Issue: 8103 / Categories: Legal News , Procedure & practice , International , Jurisdiction
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While rare, the courts can make passport orders to prevent judgment debtors leaving the country. In this week’s NLJ, Chris Bryden and Clara Parry discuss the use of this legal technique and how these orders are enforced.

The subject of the order will surrender their passport so the court can be sure they will not abscond. Bryden, barrister, and Parry, pupil barrister, 4 King’s Bench Walk, write: ‘Given the significant interference to the liberty of the respondent to those actions and given the nature of the order, it is not to be used as an enforcement sanction in and of itself. Rather, in appropriate cases, it is a tool that can facilitate enforcement.’

They examine the circumstances and parameters for which such an order would be appropriate, setting out relevant caselaw. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Freeths—Ruth Clare

Freeths—Ruth Clare

National real estate team bolstered by partner hire in Manchester

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Partner appointed head of family team

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

Firm strengthens agriculture and rural affairs team with partner return

NEWS
Conveyancing lawyers have enjoyed a rapid win after campaigning against UK Finance’s decision to charge for access to the Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched a recruitment drive for talented early career and more senior barristers and solicitors
Regulators differed in the clarity and consistency of their post-Mazur advice and guidance, according to an interim report by the Legal Services Board (LSB)
The dangers of uncritical artificial intelligence (AI) use in legal practice are no longer hypothetical. In this week's NLJ, Dr Charanjit Singh of Holborn Chambers examines cases where lawyers relied on ‘hallucinated’ citations — entirely fictitious authorities generated by AI tools
The Solicitors Act 1974 may still underpin legal regulation, but its age is increasingly showing. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Morrison-Hughes of the Association of Costs Lawyers argues that the Act is ‘out of step with modern consumer law’ and actively deters fairness
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