Employment tribunal judgments online

Employment tribunal judgments are now available online on GOV.UK at www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions. Previously, in order to read a first instance judgment, you had to hope that one of the parties published it or that the judiciary website considered it to be of sufficient importance to publish or to take a trip to the central register and […]

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How not to commission a website

Recently, I met a barrister who was handling a case where a website project had gone badly wrong, losing significant sales for the customer who had commissioned it. After comparing war stories, we concluded that a lot more websites go awry than one might realise and that it might be worth sharing some of the […]

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Time for a new intranet at Leigh Day

Leigh Day is a law firm with offices in London, Manchester and Liverpool. It was founded by Sarah Leigh and Martyn Day and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The firm currently has more than 400 staff, the majority in London, but with an office of more than 60 staff in Manchester and a small […]

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What are smart contracts?

The origin of the term “smart contract” has been attributed to Nick Szabo who wrote a paper in the late 90s in which he described them as combining “protocols with user interfaces to formalize and secure relationships over computer networks.” However, the more popular meaning of “smart contract” in current parlance, and for purposes of […]

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Publications, launches and events

Legal tech startups April’s Legal IT Insider incorporates a new Legal Tech Startup Directory. There are 18 pages of listings and analysis of 52 innovative companies who have “broken with the law firm herd mentality and are set to change the face of legal practice in the UK, Europe, US and APAC regions.” As well […]

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Solicitors’ continuing competence – a reminder

Solicitors no longer need to count CPD hours. Instead you should now reflect on the quality of your practice and identify any learning and development needs. You can then address these needs to make sure your knowledge and skills are up to date and that you are competent to practice. The new regime requires you, […]

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Legal Web Watch April 2017: Robots and the law

Legal Web Watch April 2017. Legal Web Watch is a free email service which complements the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. To receive Legal Web Watch regularly sign up here. I don't know about you, but I have had enough of "robot lawyers". It's not that I have anything against robots, it's that the term "robot […]

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CPD and continuing competence in 2017

This article first appeared in Legal Web Watch April 2017. Legal Web Watch is a free email service which complements the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. To receive Legal Web Watch regularly sign up here. It’s now nearly 6 months since the mandatory introduction of the new Continuing Competence regime for solicitors and 4 months since […]

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Delia’s legal web picks April 2017

This article first appeared in Legal Web Watch April 2017. Legal Web Watch is a free email service which complements the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. To receive Legal Web Watch regularly sign up here. The following items have been selected from Delia Venables’ “New” page. LEAP celebrates 1000 UK firm milestone LEAP Legal Software has […]

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Online courts and cyber judges

Courts in England and Wales have been struggling with information technology for so long now, that expectations of any improvement remain stagnantly low. Nevertheless, the current project to create an Online Court with its own procedure and staff goes beyond anything hitherto attempted. Can it overcome a long history of failed IT projects and deliver […]

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Online courts: the human impact

The testing of online courts should not simply be about whether the technology works, said Andrew Langdon QC, chairman of the Bar, at an event on 16 February hosted by the UCL Judicial Institute, “The Case for Online Courts”. He sensibly pointed out the “human process” of law, and the potential impacts of the transition […]

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Completing legal directory submissions for the Bar

The legal directory industry shows no sign of decline. With the advent of the internet it would have been reasonable to expect the directories business to fade away as more people took to search engines to find their preferred counsel. However, the directories have embraced the internet by providing online versions with relevant information and […]

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