Legal Issues and Opinions affecting people from across the UK
PM Law solicitors, operated 24 branches stretching from Yorkshire to Kent. Stealing clients’ funds is, apart from being a serious crime, utterly despicable as many of the clients have no other funds. In this case somebody has stolen £1 million of clients’ money One solicitor I met said that the clients’ funds that he had stolen had only been about £30,000.00. I discovered later he had stolen from the Church! February 2026 Rodney Hylton-Potts
Ghanem Al-Masarir is a Saudi national living in Britain critical, of the Saudi royal family. His phone was hacked and he was put under surveillance, but worse he was beaten up outside Harrods on 31 August 2018 by agents of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government failed in their attempt to claim state immunity. A High Court Judge in London ordered the Saudis to pay him over £3 million damages mainly for loss of earnings. The next phase. Collection? Could be fun. Rodney Hylton-Potts February 2026
Sir Brian Leveson, a senior judge, has made recommendations. Try these: Prison vans going to court, can use bus lanes. Unless the victim wants the prisoner there, he or she, can be sentenced remotely via prison link. The police would no longer have to redact personal data, e.g. immigration status before sending files to the Crown Prosecution Service. Professional witnesses should be able to give evidence via video link. Lawyers should be able to email judges on administrative matters. Why did it take many months of expensive investigation to come up with these blindingly obvious solutions. February 2026 Rodney Hylton-Potts
We know that Andrew has taken legal advice from a Woking solicitor. We do not know whether his office is near the famous Pizza Hut. We can be certain the advice is not visit America or give sworn testimony before Congress, which could result in a perjury charge. Like any defendant, whatever you think of him, Andrew is entitled to legal advice and would be unwise to ignore it. It is therefore a disgrace that the Prime Minister attempts to breach his rights. Whatever you think of Andrew, by putting him under huge public scrutiny also no doubt in future…
Robert Jenrick recently having switched from Conservative to Reform said in the House of Commons “We are told this man leaked confidential information to a convicted sex offender when he was a cabinet minister and took tens of thousands of pounds in secret bank handers”. He continued “Mandelson has clearly broken the law and now stands accused of serious misconduct in public office and should be tried for his offences”. No allegations. No suspicions. No ‘The police are opening an enquiry’ , no presumption of innocence. Misconduct in public office is a common law crime and it is so hard…
This new law recognises that crypto tokens and non-fungible tokens are capable of being regarded as property. This creates a regulatory framework governed by the FCA for overseas and British customers. More thought needs to be given to the different types of crypto assets instead of lumping them altogether. The new regime will not prevent you from losing your money and many still consider them to be a Ponzi scheme. Caution. Let the buyer beware. Rodney Hylton-Potts February 2026
Solicitors hold often substantial sums in their client account, from transactions especially property. A client will pay them a deposit which they will pass on, on exchange of contracts perhaps some weeks later. The same on completion. Also the client will pay an amount of costs for a retainer, which is not disbursed immediately e.g. on barristers’ fees. This forms a very large amount of solicitors’ income and I have known some conveyancing solicitors who earn more from the interest, than fees. The government now wants to tax the solicitor on the money. This is intellectually dishonest. The money belongs…
The centuries old Scottish jury verdict of ‘not proven’ has just been abolished. From now on an accused can only be convicted in Scotland if at least 10 members of a 15 person jury agree on a guilty verdict, rather than eight at present. The Scottish criminal courts can either rule guilty or not guilty but not “not proven”. In Scotland now some limited research into how juries reach their verdicts will be allowed but not elsewhere in the UK. Until 1967 jury verdicts in England and Wales had to be unanimous but then majority verdicts were introduced. January 2026…
A great friend of Winston Churchill’s was F E Smith, later Lord Birkenhead. He was so self-important that after taking silk, that is becoming a King’s counsel, he never again flushed the chambers’ lavatory. He had his clerk do it for him. You couldn’t make it up. Happy New Year. December 2025
We think of barristers as fat cats, in beautiful suits with polished shoes, who swan in and out of court and then go off to fashionable wine bars, whether they have won the case or lost it. The reality for Legal Aid barristers, especially on family cases, is quite different. Some work 70 hours a week and one calculated she was earning £7 per hour, below the minimum wage. Court conditions have deteriorated with dispensing machines that do not work, lack of drinking water, heating or wheelchair access. The result is a huge number of litigants in person who, unless…
