Recent publicity focuses on the fact that more than one million people are claiming Universal Credit, without the need to search for a job. The true situation is much worse. Those people claiming benefit who are supposed to search for a job are not checked. In my long experience of benefit fraud work, helping claimants in trouble, I cannot think of one occasion when any claimant was criticised for not seeking work. They simply do not bother and often get cash jobs for delivery drivers, mini cabbing or drug dealing. The news looks bad but in fact it is much…
Despite the stain from the murder of Jamal Khashoggi seven years ago, murdered in Istanbul by a 15 strong team of Asians, and constant human rights violations including locking up people for casual social media comments on the regime, the lure of black gold in Saudi has caused an explosion of law firms to move there. These firms trumpet their diversity and commitment to human rights and yet benefit from the regime that abuses human rights. Long sentences are handed down and sometimes the death penalty after unfair “so called trials” related to peaceful online expression. Should they put profit…
A super injunction is one that stops a defendant doing something such as talking about a footballer’s marriage or an Government cock up, but also prevents anybody informing the public or press with its existence. It is sinister and contrary to the fundamental constitutional principle of open justice. The Ministry of Defence recently used one for over two years. There could be one affecting you now and you are not event to know about it. Watch this space! November 2025 Rodney Hylton-Potts
In 2015 a trader at UBS was convicted of rigging LIBOR the interest rate benchmark used by banks to fix our loans and mortgages. After 5½ years in prison, he was later acquitted and is seeking compensation for the destruction of his career, loss of liberty and emotional and physical harm. Good luck to him. He was one of dozens of traders doing the same thing. As usual, the big boys on the board and at the top got away completely scot-free. He was the classic scapegoat, and I hope he socks it to them. November 2025 Rodney Hylton-Potts
A barrister has been scolded in Court for relying upon artificial intelligence that produced fictious cases and mistakes. A barrister preparing a case used AI to prepare his submissions, but failed to check and there were extraordinary mistakes that crept in which surprised him and the Judge was scathing. He even threatened to report the barrister to the Bar Standards Board. The moral of the story is that whilst you can rely upon AI and should, the responsibility for the final product is the lawyers and woe betide if it is wrong. Rodney Hylton-Potts October 2025
Most law firms delegate routine tasks to unqualified paralegals and so they should, to keep costs down. In a recent case however, the court has ruled that only a solicitor can conduct litigation. That means a lot of the routine tasks formerly done by paralegals, will have to be now done by the solicitor which will make costs sharply rise. This should be seen in the context of AI, which is going to dramatically change the profession and many other professions and businesses. The employee cannot even conduct the litigation under supervision. For almost two decades the legal profession has…
Last month Natalia Potanina, the ex-wife of a Russian billionaire, won a case in London giving her the right to pursue her financial divorce claim here, despite the separation and divorce being formalised in Russia more than a decade ago. Vladimir Potanin was a former First Deputy Prime Minister and twice-ranked the country’s richest person with a $20 billion fortune. This case opens the door to divorce floodgates rather than just divorce tourism. The English system is financially attractive to the weaker party, when it comes to splitting wealth and assets equally, even if one party was the main breadwinner.…
The District Attorney in Utah announced he plans to seek the death penalty for the young man who shot Charlie Kirk. This has been greeted with widespread approval in the UK with words like “I wish we could do the same here”. Of course, we want to punish evil men on conviction, but the risk of wrongful conviction still lurks and hangs over British justice. There have been many, many cases of wrongful convictions over the years and people in jail now wrongfully convicted. If there was a death penalty, it would be too late, and they would be dead.…
A lawyer has a legal and ethical duty to do the very best for his client. Supposing an experienced lawyer drafts an important letter for a client, dealing with an issue such as that client’s liberty, marriage, children or business. He gives it close attention and produces an excellent draft. Should he run that through AI before sending it to the client for approval? He is experienced, he looks at it, it is a good letter, even an excellent letter. Why bother? The answer is that AI might improve it. Not will, but certainly might. Experience now shows that AI…
The Bell Hotel, Epping is the subject of High Court decisions and appeals. The issue is whether allowing illegal immigrants to live there, turns it, for planning purposes, from a hotel into a hostel. It is mind-boggling, to consider how incompetent the Home Office were in not seeking planning permission before filling the hotels with immigrants. So mind-boggling it will not be true. The real reason is clear. Had they done so, the local residents and indeed Local Authority would have had huge objections. So they did it, without permission in the stealth of night and have got caught out…
