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…
Labour (not the party usually associated with toughness on crime) is mooting some very interesting ideas. On conviction they propose this could happen: 1. A driving ban (for non-driving offences). 2. A travel ban (no longer allowed abroad). 3. Ban on football matches or going to pubs or clubs. Many a middle class citizen who enjoys his or her weekly cocaine, might this twice if being caught means that he could not take the family to Antigua or travel on business to New York. Many a young man who likes to party on a Friday might think twice about getting…
A group of trainee lawyers have called upon the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to make the qualification exams easier. This is justified they say because there is a higher pass rate amongst middle class men, than women, working class or minority candidates. The result of the current system is that more white men than (say) black women qualify as solicitors. Therefore, they argue that the exam should be made easier. Many find this utter rubbish. The public are looking for, in their solicitor, somebody who is clever with a good brain and able to advise on the rough and tumble…
‘Needs’ are what determine most financial divorce cases. What does a person “need”? Where the other party has funded an opulent lifestyle, needs can differ. For example, many ladies say they “need” Botox and a huge fashion allowance. Simon Entwistle married heiress Geri Halliwell, and she funded an extravagant lifestyle with a villa in Dubai. On their divorce, he said he needed £26,000 a year (£500 a week) for meals because he could not cook. “I cannot even cook an omelette”, he told Mr Justice Francis. That cut no ice with the judge who told him to learn. Simon had…
Noel Philo is one of the country’s oldest barristers and has practised law for 50 years. There is also a chap out there of 93. How would you feel if a 90 year old turned up at court to represent you? You might be dismayed, when such an old boy or girl turned up, but there is no substitute for experience. Lawyers with that experience, (of whom I am one although I am not here to blow my own trumpet), have an incredible advantage over other lawyers. They have seen it all. They know what is likely to happen in…
