NIPC News

Court of Chancery, Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn, Circa 1808 Author: Thomas Rowlandson and others, Public Domain, Source: Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert In New Business and Property Division ,  3 June 2026, I mentioned the Lady Chief Justice's announcement that a new Business and Property Division would be established early in the next legal year.   In their press release ,  Modernisation of High Court structure comes into effect today ,  the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary announced that the change took  effect yesterday. The Business and Property Courts and Lists page  shows that the new Division takes over the work previously done by the Chancery Division.  It also acquires the Commercial Court and the Technology and Construction Court from the King's Bench Division.   The head of the new Division is to be known as the President (see President of the Business and Property Division ). Practitioners will have to get used to a modified s...

Queen Elizabeth I in the Court of Queen's Bench Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary  have published a new edition of the Queen's Bench Division Guide on 7 Feb 2022.  It is a guide to practice within the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice.  It supplements the Civil Procedure Rules and Practice Directions  and is intended to make it easier for parties and their legal representatives to use that Division. The Queen's Bench Division is one of three divisions of the High Court of Justice established by s.5 (1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981.  Its work consists mainly of claims for damages for breach of contract and tort and the recovery of debts but it also has a number of specialist courts known respectively as "The Administrative Court", "The Admiralty Court", "The Commercial Court", "The Circuit Commercial Court" and "The Technology and Construction Court."  Although...

Amsterdam Photo Massimo Catarinella Source Wikipedia Creative Commons Licence Jane Lambert In Paper 2 of the Brexit papers    Access to the EU legal services market The Bar Council Brexit Working Group reminded us that "the UK legal services market is a significant revenue generator for the Exchequer, worth £25.7 billion in total, employing approximately 370,000 people. Much of its work comes from overseas: "In 2015, of the 1,100 cases registered at the Commercial Court, more than two-thirds had one non-UK based party to proceedings." That would probably be true of the Patents Court where the world's leading pharmaceutical and consumer electronics companies settle their disputes and to a large extent the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court. Net exports of legal services generated an estimated £3.3 billion in 2015. Even though it is more expensive to litigate in common law countries than in most civil law jurisdictions businesses...