Category: news

‘Last year, the High Court found that a partner of the Defendant firm of solicitors, Mr Daniel Broughton, had dishonestly assisted in a misappropriation of the Claimant’s funds. The Court of Appeal has now overturned that decision. In doing so, it has reaffirmed the distinction between negligence and dishonesty, and clarified the requirements for “blind eye” dishonesty to be made out.’

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Hailsham Chambers, 19th October 2026

Source: www.hailshamchambers.com

‘All applications for security for costs begin with a simple proposition. A defendant has been brought involuntarily into litigation, may spend a substantial sum defeating the claim, and should not be left with a costs order which is worthless because the claimant cannot pay it. That proposition is easy to state. Its application is less straightforward. The jurisdiction is protective, not punitive. It is not intended to enable a defendant to stifle an arguable claim by requiring the claimant to put its litigation budget beyond use. Nor does it entitle a defendant to insist upon the most expensive or inconvenient form of security merely because it would prefer it.’

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Hailsham Chambers, 12th October 2026

Source: www.hailshamchambers.com

‘It is a criminal offence in the UK if a business fails to prevent its employees or any person associated with it from facilitating tax evasion.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 28th October 2026

Source: www.pinsentmasons.com

‘The Legal Services Board (LSB) has approved the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) amended guidance that will allow it to issue unlimited fines in cases of economic crime.’

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Legal Futures, 28th October 2026

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

‘A written question from Mike Wood (Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, Con) about appointments in the Church of England for which the Government has formal constitutional responsibility produced the following useful list response from the Cabinet Office on 23 October.’

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Law & Religion UK, 26th October 2026

Source: lawandreligionuk.com

‘The Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 (“the Act”) introduced major structural and electoral changes to Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) which took effect for the election on 7 May 2026. These included an increase to the size of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members, and the introduction of a new, Closed Proportional List electoral system. Both provisions marked the culmination of a long-running debate on the size of the Senedd and its electoral system: these were informed by an understanding that the original Senedd was too small, its scrutiny capacity too thinly spread, and the desire to introduce a more proportional electoral system. For two decades, beginning with the Richard Commission (2004), a total of five inquiries produced recommendations on these two elements of Senedd reform.’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 22nd October 2026

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org

‘In Henley v Thurrock Council, the Employment Tribunal dismissed age discrimination claims brought by an employee made redundant shortly before his 55th birthday, who consequently missed out on an immediate unreduced LGPS pension.’

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Pensions Barrister, 26th October 2026

Source: www.pensionsbarrister.com

‘The High Court has ruled that information withheld from a child’s parents in Forced Marriage Protection Order (FMPO) proceedings should also be withheld for a short period from the parents in the context of care proceedings.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 27th October 2026

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

‘Councils and the police have been granted powers to take stronger enforcement action against repeat anti-social behaviour offenders through ‘Respect Orders’ that come into force across England and Wales today [27th October].’

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Local Government Lawyer, 27th October 2026

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

‘HM Land Registry has published a practice guide to help conveyancers and the wider property market understand and prepare for forthcoming requirements on contractual control agreements.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 26th October 2026

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

‘Divers will be banned from entering British shipwrecks in a matter of weeks as the Armed Forces Bill cleared at third reading in the House of Lords on Tuesday [27th October]’.

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The Independent, 27th October 2026

Source: www.independent.co.uk

‘A former Metropolitan police officer who served in the same unit as Sarah Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, has been found guilty of sexual offences against a woman he met through his work as an officer.’

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The Guardian, 27th October 2026

Source: www.theguardian.com

‘A couple who “fatally battered” their three-month-old son have had their “unduly lenient” sentences for murder increased.’

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BBC News, 27th October 2026

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

On 8 October 2026, the High Court handed down judgment that illustrates a Parole Board failure to act with “considerable caution” when assessing unproven allegations and unsupported conclusions in a release decision. In this case, an irrationality challenge was—unusually—successful. This case is important because it demonstrates that a Parole Board decision may be cumulatively irrational where steps in reasoning were ill-evidenced “and/or inadequate weight [was] accorded to a relevant consideration” [167]. The case is R (Siratillah Ford) v Parole Board [2026] EWHC 2502 (Admin).

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Administrative Court Blog, 27th October 2026

Source: administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com

‘On Tuesday, it was reported that major British supermarkets, including M&S, ASDA and Sainsbury’s have joined a campaign calling on the British government to introduce mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence for businesses in both their domestic and global supply chains.’

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UK Human Rights Blog, 27th October 2026

Source: ukhumanrightsblog.substack.com

‘The premises were a 1998 two-storey office building at Crossways Business Park, Dartford. The 2003 lease contained a covenant to keep the premises, expressly including the heating and air-conditioning apparatus, “in good and substantial repair and condition”. It expired on 8 July 2023.’

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Gatehouse Chambers, 26th October 2026

Source: gatehouselaw.co.uk

‘The principle of compensatory damages for tort victims is beguilingly simple. As Lord Blackburn explained in Livingstone v Rawyards Coal Co. (1880) 5 App Cas 25 (H.L.), the court awards “that sum of money which will put the party who has been injured […] in the same position as he would have been in if he had not sustained the wrong for which he is now getting his compensation” (p. 39). This counterfactual enquiry is very difficult in practice where the claimant has been catastrophically and permanently injured, as “what will happen?” and “what would have happened?” are both unknowable at trial. But where the catastrophic injury has also reduced the claimant’s life expectancy, the enquiry is conceptually difficult as well. This is the “lost years” conundrum: if an injured claimant with reduced life expectancy would have earned money during years when they will now, ex hypothesi, be dead, should they recover compensation for the income they will not now earn in those lost years, even though they will not be around to spend it?’

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Cambridge Law Journal, 23rd October 2026

Source: www.cambridge.org

‘Our Bar Training Stats report has been published today [15 October], demonstrating the difficulty of passing the Bar Course and gaining pupillage. It also shows the variation in successful outcomes for students depending on where they study.’

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Bar Standards Board, 15th October 2026

Source: www.barstandardsboard.org.uk

‘The issues surrounding lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) continue to make headlines. One particular aspect concerns how LPAs are executed. The Court of Protection case, In the matters of AR, HR & MH [2026] EWCOP 47 (T2), reported on 30 September, may illustrate what happens with the execution of a great number of LPAs prepared without the benefit of legal advice. It highlights the real dangers of allowing the unsupervised preparation and signing of LPAs.’

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Law Society's Gazette, 23rd October 2026

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

‘Two men who killed a mother and her four-year-old daughter as they raced their high-performance cars along a Leeds city centre road have been jailed.’

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BBC News, 26th October 2026

Source: www.bbc.co.uk