I have this week been in a court building that was simultaneously flooded *and* on fire. Which felt somehow apt.

A remarkable database from Damien Charlotin (a Paris-based legal researcher) showing how widespread the misuse of AI has become in courts worldwide. Multiple daily entries are now being added. I suspect this is very much the tip of the iceberg... www.damiencharlotin.com/hallucinatio...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... An incredibly disturbing vision of the future. These are not the victim's 'own words', but the family's best guess at his feelings. By all means, a victim's family can offer their own forgiveness. But the law should not permit them to reanimate a murder victim's corpse.

The constitutional ramifications of seeking to introduce GenAI into judicial decision making has been chronically overlooked for too long. Good to see some proper critical analysis here.

Increasingly, tenants are being told by local authorities not to vacate their property under a s.21 notice until court order. But that now incurs a cost of the £404 court fee + fixed costs, which is then passed onto the tenant at the most financially precarious time in their life.

I likewise credit this immense groove for a lifelong obsession with all things jazz-funk. A great dissection here for the music geeks. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMtG...

"Litigants in person must not think that by writing emails to a court office during ongoing proceedings, they will receive legal advice in response. Furthermore, an email raising questions about their case is not the same as a formal application for determination by a judge." (¶42) 100 times yes.

Some clearer guidance for family bundles would also be welcome. Of my 6 cases today, one had a 961-page core bundle and a 1,298-page 'supplemental' bundle. Another had a mere 462-page core bundle but also a 1,076-page disclosure bundle. It can be tough to find the wood for the (many, many) trees.

The improbably lovely Hinsdale County Courthouse (1877) is Colorado's oldest courthouse still used for its originally intended purpose and a rare surviving example of a frame courthouse building. Even rarer perhaps are the multiple deer heads adorning the courtroom interior.

There is a high probability that this was an AI generated hallucination; "The two page 'summary' was written in a style that made me think the author was a lawyer familiar with the Judgments Regulation, but whose first language is not English."(§103)

1/4 I often need to remind advocates of the importance of liaising with a litigant-in-person opponent prior to a hearing. This includes handing them a printed copy of a skeleton argument or position statement and explaining what it is. It is both professional and a basic courtesy.

The DLR needs to up its game as a matter of urgency.

"Further, the court ORDERS that, on or before December 31, 2024, counsel for both Plaintiff and Defendants are to go to lunch together. Plaintiff’s counsel will pay the bill; Defendants’ counsel will leave the tip.” Must have missed that in CPR r.3.9.

An absolutely gangbusters bit of court architecture. Caen’s New (2015) Law Courts possess clear spatial planning and purist aesthetics. Not to mention a tree in the the circular central atrium spanning all 5 floors. It makes me miss Truro's erstwhile foliage. www.archdaily.com/793047/new-l...

The iconic roof of the Antwerp Law Courts (2005) bears more than a passing resemblance to Star Wars' T-4a Imperial Shuttle.

A slim but important and illuminating read on the experience of LiPs in the County Court from @leader-kate.bsky.social I would recommend it to lawyers and judges alike. Cracking cover too.

Limitations and risks of AI in the justice system highlighted once more. "Prosecutors and judges may rely on AI-generated content for critical decisions without fully grasping its limitations or biases...at trial, he notes the challenges in cross-examining opaque AI-generated content."

1873's City of London Magistrates' Court. Designed in Italianate stone by architect John Whichcord, best known for Brighton's Grand Hotel. This was built and used as the New Zealand Bank until 1988 and later repurposed. I've not been inside so would be intrigued to know how it functions as a court.

One of 10 unsuccessful entries to the competition to design London's new Law Courts, exhibited at Lincoln’s Inn 1866-1867. This neo-Gothic behemoth was from John Raphael Brandon, best known for his ecclesiastical works. Squint, and those twin spires could be Cologne Cathedral.

An excellent article with insightful commentary re. claimed common interest constructive trusts overriding prior express declarations. I suspect Cynberg is going to see plenty of future citation...

I'm still certain that we missed a trick by not setting up a whole bunch of Nightingale Courts in Westminster Hall. The south-east corner was good enough for the Kings Bench after all. A good test of cross-examination skills to project a line of questioning over that distance at that height(!)

Potter County, Texas is home to this handsomely proportioned high-rise Art Deco courthouse. The 1932 eight-story structure has a terra cotta facade adorned in decorative figural and botanical bas-relief depicting the region’s cultural and natural history. It has aged very well.