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Procedure – litigation friends

November 2024 | Family

The office of the Official Solicitor and Public Trustee has published a new referral form to be used where the OS is proposed as Litigation Friend for family proceedings. It is not relevant to Children Act public law cases. The form is for solicitors to provide additional information about a child or protected party where …

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Financial remedies – consent orders

November 2024 | Family

The trial judge had no power to strike out or otherwise summarily determine H’s application to set aside a consent order on grounds of W’s non-disclosure. She had come into a significant amount of money following the FDR but had not disclosed it. At issue was whether the court did have power to strike out …

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ET – amending claim

November 2024 | Employment

The EAT has allowed an appeal which enabled a claimant to amend her claim to add a claim of vicarious liability. The case summary is as follows: ‘Practice and procedure The claimant asserted in her ET1 that she had been dismissed having by reason of her having made protected disclosures. An ET refused an amendment …

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Employment Rights Bill – overview

November 2024 | Employment

The government has set out its proposals for sweeping employment rights changes. The bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 10 October 2024. Consultation is proposed in 2025. Most reforms will take effect no earlier than 2026. Some of the headline proposals include: banning zero hours contracts; banning fire and rehire; introducing basic …

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Procedure – Criminal Procedure Rules

November 2024 | Crime

Practitioners should note recent changes to the Criminal Procedural Rules which came into force from 7 October 2024 (made by the Criminal Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2024). The Criminal Procedure Rules and PD 2020 includes those changes, which are: Replaced: Parts 36 (appeals to the CA) and 43 (appeal or reference to the SC) …

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Guidance – advocacy in the youth court

November 2024 | Crime

Practitioners will welcome new Law Society guidance on advocacy in the youth court. Children are particularly vulnerable, and may be in care and have complex needs. The guidance provides a ‘basic introduction’ to working with children in the youth justice system, and signposts readers to regulatory guidance and several further resources. The guidance follows last …

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Sentencing – youth court

November 2024 | Crime

The sentencing judge erred in failing to adjust A’s sentence to account for substantial personal mitigation (other than a one-third reduction for his age). A pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and an immediate custodial sentence of three years seven months in a young offender institution was imposed. He was 17 at the time of …

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Evidence – good character

November 2024 | Crime

The sentencing judge erred in excluding evidence of good character – but it had no impact on the appeal outcome. A was sentenced to two years eight months’ imprisonment following conviction of violent disorder. He appealed on several grounds. The prosecution followed a violent altercation between extended family members within two families during the National …

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HMLR – form DJP

November 2024 | Conveyancing

Form DJP is very useful as it is used to remove the name of a deceased joint proprietor from a register of title and removes the need to submit an entire AP1. This form has been updated to make it clear in the explanatory information that the form is only to be used where there …

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HMLR – PG6

November 2024 | Conveyancing

Continuing the theme of updating practice guides to tell conveyancers what they arguably should already know, HMLR has updated section 4 of PG6 (devolution on the death of a registered proprietor) to clarify the guidance in the third paragraph in section 4 concerning the death of a joint proprietor where the legal estate vests in …

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