When an employee makes a claim of harassment, discrimination or sexual misconduct, employers often make an out of court settlement and payment conditional upon the employee signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The government is proposing to outlaw that. That means that employers will be far less likely to make an out of court settlement and that the employee (the victim in most cases) will lose the privacy and anonymity that they want after a gruelling experience. Victims will be less inclined to make complaints. This unintended consequence of a ban on a NDA is exactly the sort of reason, why…
COVID 19 saw a backlog of 65,000 cases in the family courts. This was still at over 47,000 in December 2024. In 2024, the average time for a child case from filing the application to a decision was 41 weeks, but there are regional variations with some in London taking 70 weeks. This is an agonising wait for a court ruling on matters that effects the lives of children, their parents and others, all their lives. No more taxpayers money is available and there is an acute shortage of judges. Many cases are adjourned because there is no judge available,…
When Sarah Forey, a barrister of Bolt Chambers,, was briefed to appear at the High Court before Mr Justice Ritchie, she wanted to do the best possible job. She therefore used AI to check all relevant previous cases. She submitted them to the judge in her arguments. The judge scratched his head (no doubt under his wig). No judge knows every case but there were several he had not heard of. He examined the submission to find that five cases were “fake” and never happened. Sarah had failed to check AI and she was responsible. An investigation as to what…
Technology is improving all the time and if the leaders of most AI companies are right, there will be little work left for traditional lawyers by 2035. Many lawyers believe the AI bubble will soon burst, but they are wrong. In the last four years, there has been more progress than in the previous forty. Human lawyers provide judgment. AI can write a legal superb letter, but only a lawyer can tell you whether you should write a legal letter at all. AI should be embraced and used to enhance legal services, not considered a threat. At Hylton-Potts we are…
Sir Kier Starmer and Kemi Badenoch rarely agree but they did in the case of the immigration judge’s decision to allow a family from Gaza to stay in the UK, on the back of the scheme designed for Ukraine. The politicians called the judge’s decision “wrong”. This prompted the Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill the Lady Chief Justice to say she was “deeply troubled” and that the judges should be supported. This is a nonsense. Judicial independence can perfectly withstand criticisms from politicians and Parliament, being supreme, should never be muzzled. March 2025 Rodney Hylton-Potts
What explains the recent surge in boundary disputes as angry neighbours argue over strips of land, the right to mow a lawn or who owns a hedge? Many litigants seem unaware that a private arbitration by a property expert, is cheaper, with no publicity and a good lawyer will press that upon a client every time. March 2025 Rodney Hylton-Potts
There is no such thing. More than 3.6m unmarried couples live together and there is often financial hardship for one, when relationships break down. Cohabitees form the fastest growing type of family in the UK and the government policy is to strengthen rights and protections for cohabitees. The counterargument is that those who choose not to marry and in effect put assets at risk, have the right to do so and it is an infringement on their civil liberties. New law could lead to couples breaking up or having ad hoc arrangements and all sorts of unintended consequences. March 2025…
With AI being all the rage, some legal firms are testing out good AI is at answering legal questions, by giving them fictional legal problems and asking for the solution. The results were about four out of ten compared with a solicitor of two years qualification. Not surprising perhaps, but where AI scores is taking a lengthy legal document and summarising it to save time and also as a checklist for legal remedies. What AI cannot do, so far, is to advise on whether to do something or not, whether to write a letter or not and all the nuances…
Hamit Coskun, aged 50 from Derby, set light to the Quran outside the Turkish Consulate on 13 February. He has been charged with religiously motivated harassment. Many, including Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick, believe the case should be dropped immediately. That view is that burning a holy book is rude and can be offensive, but should not be remotely illegal in a free society. We have the right to be offensive. Rodney Hylton-Potts February 2025
Surprising little attention was paid to an off the cuff remark made by Donald Trump on 5 February. He said if he is assassinated, he has “left instructions” for Iran to be obliterated if they were behind it. So he casually stated that his surviving Vice President would potentially order a nuclear strike, on Iran killing millions of people and nobody in the media picked it up. Incredibly ineffective especially when he has demonstrated, recently he does what he says. February 2025 Rodney Hylton-Potts
