Gen Z craze toy maker Jellycat launches legal action against Next and Hamleys Legal Jellycat, the British soft toy company that took Gen-Z by storm, has filed several legal actions in the London High Court over trademark allegations. Lawyers at Stephenson Harwood filed three separate lawsuits last week against retail giants over passing off and trademark allegations. The firm, founded by Thomas Gatacre in 1999, has an exclusive trademark [...]
David Lammy rejects higher pay rise for judges amid recruitment crisis Legal David Lammy turned down an independent recommendation for a higher judicial pay increase, instead approving a 3.5 per cent rise amid government efforts to tackle recruitment challenges for senior judges. The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) report, published last week, recommended a 3.8 per cent pay increase across the judiciary, estimated to cost taxpayers around [...]
Top City law firm slammed for ‘misleading’ AI letters sent to court Legal A well-known London-headquartered law firm has been criticised by a High Court judge after a lawyer sent the court AI-generated letters containing false legal information. A judgment handed down on 22 May found a junior solicitor at Pinsent Masons used AI to draft two “misleading” emails containing so-called hallucinations sent to the High Court [...]
How can we trust the justice system when AI is hallucinating evidence? May 26, 2026 AI-hallucinated evidence in court has become a structural issue that needs a procedural response, writes Nicholas Blomfield.
Poundstretcher seeks rent cuts in survival bid May 7, 2026 Discount retailer Poundstretcher is set to be restructured by its owner, Fortress Investment Group, to reduce property-related overheads and avoid closure. The plan will see the retail chain, which operates 298 stores in the UK, stabilise a “substantial fall in turnover” and rising leasehold costs, the Insolvency and Companies Court heard today. In the High [...]
The rollercoaster ride for creditors chasing bankrupt theme park investor April 15, 2026 It was billed as Britain’s answer to Disneyland Paris. Unveiled in 2012, plans for the vast 900-acre theme park in Kent dazzled locals with boasts of building Europe’s largest indoor water park, a host of Mission Impossible-themed rollercoasters and the creation of 27,000 jobs. Hollywood giant Paramount ramped up the excitement, announcing it would be [...]
Crispin Odey drops £79m libel case against Financial Times April 10, 2026 Former hedge fund tycoon Crispin Odey dropped his libel claim against the Financial Times, ending a high-stakes legal battle over the publication’s reporting of sexual misconduct allegations. The Financial Times published several articles about the City financier in 2023 regarding allegations over his sexual conduct, following allegations from 20 women spanning five decades. Odey has [...]
Son of world’s richest banker challenged US law firm over $35m legal bill April 8, 2026 Alberto Safra survived a bitter fight over his father’s $23bn fortune. Then the legal bill arrived, all $35m (£26m) of it. Safra, son of Brazilian billionaire Joseph Safra, now deceased, was billed over $35m for less than two years of work over a ‘bitter multibillion-dollar estate feud’ and one of the largest inheritance battles in [...]
‘Ambulance chasers’ in the crosshairs as claims industry faces scrutiny April 2, 2026 As London’s legal scene gets more litigious, creeping closer to the American ‘sue everything’ culture, so-called ambulance chasing claims firms are starting to appear in the headlines – for the wrong reasons. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, has been critical of claims management companies (CMC) or similarly specialised law firms throughout [...]
Deutsche Bank hit with £700m lawsuit in London by former executives March 31, 2026 Four former Deutsche Bank executives have filed a £700m legal action in the High Court alleging the bank conspired to injure them by “unlawful means.” The history of the claim stems from a decade-long saga that began with the Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) scandal, which led to criminal convictions that have now been [...]