News

3PB personal injury and clinical negligence barrister Tom Webb attended Winchester County Court on Thursday 28th May in what is believed to have been one of the first civil trials to be heard in person since lockdown began. His observations on what fellow barristers, solicitors, lay clients, witnesses and judges will be going back to in the coming weeks are set out in his article. Tom reports on the practicalities of the process, including the...

3PB are delighted to announce that family barrister Hannah Bush has been appointed a Deputy District Judge and a part-time First Tier Tribunal judge after separate competitions, the latter of which was announced today Thursday 28 May 2020. Hannah will sit in the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber and will hear appeals concerned with Special Educational Needs and Disability and will sit as a Deputy District Judge on the Midlands Circuit. Hannah was called to...

3PB’s specialist family barrister Sarah Jennings has reviewed for Family Law Week the experience of remote working in Bristol’s Family Courts. On 23rd March 2020, the government responded to the Coronavirus epidemic with strict lockdown measures. This quickly led to the closure of court centres across the country which meant new ways of working for those in the legal profession. In the weeks that followed, everyone in the field of family law worked tirelessly to...

Lydia Pemberton, deputy head of 3PB’s Property and Estates team, and Charles Irvine, a member of 3PB’s Property and Estates team and Commercial team, have reviewed the new changes to the execution of documents brought about shortly before and since the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. New ways of working have meant a rise in technology and electronic communications which brings new formalities when it comes to dealing with the execution of legal documents. In this...

3PB’s Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence team is delighted to announce its next virtual event, an 80’s themed quiz, at 7pm on Thursday 4th June 2020. It would be great if you could join us. We hope the music, films and picture rounds, in particular, will welcome you on a trip down memory lane. Big hair, neon, leg warmers… all welcome. We’ll be awarding a prize to the best dressed - a £100 voucher kindly...

Do shareholders in a family or quasi-partnership company, owe each other fiduciary duties? Seb Oram analyses the recent decision of the Chancery Division in De Sena v. Notaro [2020] EWHC 1031 (Ch) for LexisPSL’s Case Analysis Expert Panel. This article was first published by Lexis®PSL on 11/05/2020. To read the full article please click here. Seb is a Commercial and Construction Law barrister. Click here to view his profile.

On Thursday 14th May 2020, 3PB family finance barristers Nicola Frost, Tonia Clark and Amy Beddis worked together as part of a team who presented a practical and informative remote mock remote Financial Dispute Resolution Hearing (FDR), alongside members of the Bristol judiciary, fellow Bristol barristers from Albion Chambers and St John's Chambers and solicitors from Burges Salmon and Clarke Willmott. The mock trial was attended by almost 200 solicitors, barristers and judges from across the...

In the latest video in the series on how to create ebundles for the family courts 3PB's Steven Howard shares some tips on what to do if your finished ebundle is too large to send by email. See all of the videos here.

3PB Barristers' employment & discrimination law specialist Matthew Curtis appeared in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday 5 May 2020. Matthew was representing the Appellant in a hearing which went ahead despite the current lockdown since the pandemic. The representatives and Court of Appeal judges appeared via video link using Skype for Business, with the appellant choosing to dial in via telephone. The Court of Appeal was asked to determine whether the Employment Tribunal had...

3PB construction barrister James Davison – together with Anne Wright of Lawrence Stephens – has re-published a guide to selecting and using an expert witness in construction claims. The guide “To be or not to be an expert witness”, which was originally published in Construction Law, can be read here, provides practical guidance on selecting an expert witness, and advises witnesses how to behave once appointed. ‘The expert witness’s primary duty is to help the...

3PB's Vanessa Meachin QC talks about the benefits and progression of arbitration in private family law cases in this ten-minute podcast.  

3PB's specialist Civil barrister Richard Wheeler has produced an article on how to get the court to hear your case during the Coronavirus pandemic. The article “Getting the Court to Hear Your Case During the Pandemic” provides an insight into county court civil listing during the pandemic which may assist litigants to retain their current court listings. It provides answers to the following questions: What does the court’s triage process involve? What considerations might the...