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The insider: 14 June 2024

14 June 2024 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 8075 / Categories: Opinion , Public , Litigation funding , Profession , Costs
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Legislature reforms bite the dust, the judges who are happy with their lot, and a lack of costs transparency causes chagrin. Dominic Regan brings us up to date

The impending general election has seen off for now legislation that was in the pipeline. The Litigation Funding Agreements (Enforceability) Bill, designed to reverse the unhelpful PACCAR decision of 2023, has fallen away. Promised measures to bring in fixed costs on settlement for unissued clinical negligence cases worth up to £25,000 have also bitten the dust. In truth, the measures were inchoate. They were still a work in progress, despite an ambitious declaration that they would be introduced in October. Lord Justice Birss was troubled by what had been drafted.

Matthew Maxwell Scott of the Association of Consumer Support Organisations understands the intricate workings of the legislature and tipped me off last January about purdah. The announcement of an election means that the civil service pauses all but essential work and it eventually occurred to me that reforms to be delivered

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Hugh James—Phil Edwards

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Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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