Thanks to lawyer and fitness guru Mark Stephens for alerting us to the fact that today is the first day of the legal new year, as detailed at Practice Direction 39B of the Civil Procedure Rules.
A ceremony will take place this morning at Westminster Abbey to mark the occasion. According to Wikipedia, the country’s top judges will arrive in a procession from the Temple Bar to the abbey for a religious service, followed by a reception known as the ‘Lord Chancellors’ breakfast’, held in Westminster Hall.
In times gone by, judges apparently walked the distance from Temple to Westminster. But these days, having gained their annual fill of exercise from the London Legal Walk, they now typically arrive by car.