So this will (probably) be my last blog post of 2011, just over a year since I wrote my f
irst one on the Legal Futures website (which you should read if you don’t, the website that is, not my post). I was inspired to write because I was fed up with just sighing loudly and shaking my head at the
absurd reporting of a survey suggesting most, if not all, high street law firms would come out of the ABS mangle alive. One year on, sadly, not much has changed with the way many lawyers think about the changes taking place in the legal market. Lots else has though.
Tagged:
ABS,
access to justice,
compensation culture,
consumers,
justice,
LASPO,
law firms,
law society,
lawyers,
legal aid,
quality solicitors,
solicitors from hellOne of the great things about working for yourself from home is that you don’t have to buy presents for any colleagues. This more than offsets the downside of not having a Christmas party to go to. However, in the true spirit of Christmas, I thought I would selflessly hunt down some ideal gifts for lawyers. I am not entirely sure how I would feel if I were given any of these, but then I am not a lawyer. I hope my suggestions are helpful.
Read more...You know when something is seriously wrong with the world when you are on the same side of an argument as Lord Tebbit. Not exactly known for his compassion, he famously urged the unemployed to get on their bikes and look for work, he’s not a politician you would think of as a supporter of any sort of state funding for, well anything. However, this week he has rather surprised everyone and
come out fighting to preserve legal aid for children in medical negligence cases.
We are not, on the whole, particularly child-centric in this country. Anyone with young children who has attempted to eat in a restaurant after 6pm knows this. It is often preferable to beat a hasty retreat rather than face the glares of fellow diners as your toddler runs around the table legs and your six-year old whizzes toy cars across the table. I’ve even been in a National Trust café where we were told off for ‘letting’ my friend’s son get cake crumbs on the floor.
Read more...My favourite blog post of the week was in the
Harvard Business Review (HBR), not normally somewhere I hang out but worth it on this occasion. The author admitted that in about half of his business conversations he had ‘almost no idea what other people are saying’. He goes on to say that when he was younger, if he didn’t understand what people were saying, he assumed he was stupid. He now realises it’s the other people who are stupid for not ensuring he can understand them.
I know not all lawyers are bad and I apologise for going on about it. I do realise that most of you do a great job for your clients and, on the whole, the world would be significantly more unjust without you. For a start, I’d be out of a job. But I thought this week I might give you a couple of examples where lawyers have got it spectacularly wrong, just so you know I’m not making it all up. I am not intending to descend into Solicitors from Hell territory, so I won’t be naming any names.
Read more...I apologise in advance for this post. This is meant to be a legal blog, even if only in the very loosest sense of the word, but I’ve struggled to find an obvious legal link (or even a not-very-obvious one) with today’s national public sector strike. I could have given you a blow-by-blow account of the history of industrial action and it’s legality or otherwise, but then you would probably stop reading about here. You may stop reading anyway, but if you are at all intrigued about the link I’ve come up with, keep going.
Read more...Even when I started smoking at 18 I knew it was bad for me. It took me quite a while to take any notice of this fact but thanks to the smoking ban I haven’t touched a cigarette in four years and my antipathy is now such I even cross the street to avoid smokers. This was quite difficult on a recent trip to Austria where people still smoke all over the place. Why is that? Is it because Austrians don’t think smoking will make them ill? Or is it because they value personal choice over state intervention, even when that creates risks for public health? Or is it simply because they don’t think banning things works?
Read more...Sometimes things happen that really make you stop and think. Often it happens when normal people are just going about their normal business and then something extraordinary happens to them. Sadly it’s not normally anything good. But it’s striking because it could happen to anyone, it could happen to you or someone you know. And you can’t even begin to think what it would be like if it did.
Read more...I wasn’t taught
citizenship when I was at school. It was pretty much just reading writing and arithmetic, with a bit of cooking and needlework thrown in to make sure us ladies would be able to ‘keep house’ when we grew up (although how I was supposed to have a career AND make cushions and scones I don’t know). Having said that, I think I largely came out all right and with a broad understanding of my rights and responsibilities as a citizen.
I didn’t watch much of ITV’s prime time drama,
The Jury, last week. I was bored after the first episode and decided the other four hours required to see it to the end could be better spent. The reviews were mixed. Some reflected my view that it was unimpressive and unrealistic. Others thought it a good yarn with plenty of human interest and twists and turns to keep the viewer intrigued. It probably didn’t matter as far as ratings are concerned as the British public seems to have something of a love affair with crime and courtroom drama.
The Law Society was remarkably quiet yesterday following the
announcement that the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) will ‘name and shame’ lawyers from April next year. If past indications were anything to go by I would have expected a wailing, gnashing of teeth and most of the toys to be thrown out of the pram.
Working with
lawyers when you aren’t one is a tricky business. I did it for four years and I now feel as if I could do anything. It’s not that I didn’t like any of them, many were actually good company and I even socialised with some. And it’s not that I didn’t think they did a good job – quite a few did, even though I sat opposite the client care manager so I also heard about their dirty laundry. No, what makes working with lawyers such a challenge is they think theirs is the only job that matters.
This week will be crucial in the fight to save legal aid as the bill slashing its budget and restricting its scope enters its final stage in the House of Commons. Any objective, rational assessment of the provisions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) would surely come to the conclusion that this was a disaster on its way to happening. Unfortunately, being objective and rational isn’t a requirement for being in government.
Read more...Tagged:
access to justice,
Anna Soubry,
Boris Johnson,
David Cameron,
Dominic Grieve,
Helen Grant,
Jackson,
justice,
LASPO,
legal aid cuts,
Lord JudgeIn my last post I wrote about how administrative justice was the Cinderella of the justice system. I now think there is probably another candidate. If administrative justice is grown-up Cinderella waiting for the prince, then public legal education is baby Cinderella, who doesn’t even dare dream about him. As with any aspect of the law that isn’t about criminals or lawyers it doesn’t get much attention and even less money. But lack of column inches and scarcity of funds don’t mean something isn’t important.
Read more...It’s probably not quite close enough to Christmas to start employing pantomime analogies, but if there were ever a Cinderella in our justice system it is surely administrative justice. It’s not a phrase that trips easily off the tongue, most of the public have probably never heard of it, most lawyers don’t pay it much attention and even the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) barely mentions it in its business plan. Which is odd because, unlike criminal justice, most people will probably come into contact with it at some point.
Read more...Tagged:
administrative justice,
AJTC,
appeals,
AvMA,
benefit removal,
clinical negligence,
complaints,
justice,
LASPO,
legal aid cuts,
legislation,
Medical Justice,
Osborne,
policy,
Public Law ProjectAs I sat in an excruciatingly long, unmoving queue at Lanzarote airport on Thursday I nearly caused a stampede when I read about the QualitySolicitors deal on my iPhone. My little whoop of excitement and slight leap into the air made many of the frustrated travellers around me think that Spanish ground crew had finally turned up to check us in.
Read more...Tagged:
ABS,
consumers,
Craig Holt,
high street,
legal services,
legislation,
opticians,
Palamon,
private equity,
QualitySolicitors,
SpecsaversOver the last few days I’ve been following a discussion on Twitter between a couple of
lawyers and a professional lay legal adviser (if that isn’t a contradiction in terms). I resisted the temptation to get stuck in because I have mixed views about the need for those working in the law to be regulated and I thought it would be easier to explain why here.
Tagged:
claims management companies,
consumers,
estate agents,
lay advisers,
legal services,
legal services act,
McKenzie friends,
regulation,
reserved activities,
Stephen Mayson,
will writingI have a cat. I’m quite fond of him and I like having him around, but, if I’m honest, I don’t think he’d be too upset if I moved away and left him. He’d probably just go and live with the neighbour up the road where he seems to spend most of his time anyway. It’s what cats do. So it’s surely common sense that a cat couldn’t be a reason not to deport someone? Apparently not.
Read more...Tagged:
bill of rights,
catgate,
ECHR,
home secretary,
HRA,
human rights,
Human Rights Act,
justice,
Learco Chindamo,
legislation,
rule of law,
Theresa MaySo this morning when I woke up, still in the fog of sleep, I thought I must have stepped back in time. Coming from my radio, without, it seemed, a hint of irony, was a discussion about whether lawyers should be allowed to operate for profit . Actually, it was more of a parallel-universe feeling than a going-back-in-time one because I’m pretty sure
lawyers have been parting people from their cash since advocates in ancient Rome realised there was money in winning arguments.
According to
the OECD, the UK already has one of the most business-friendly frameworks of employment law of any of its members, second only to the US. The chancellor, George Osborne, is obviously not convinced. He told
The Sun newspaper yesterday we talk far too much about ‘union rights’ and not enough about the rights of unemployed people to get a job. That’s why he’s increasing the qualifying period for employees to make unfair dismissal claims from one to two years.
As you probably know, I am not a big fan of lawyers. But I do have to concede that sometimes lawyers are not the only people who make me angry. It probably isn’t too surprising that one of my targets today is the insurance industry. It’s probably slightly more surprising that the other is Which?, the consumer group that, arguably, made me who I am.
Read more...Tagged:
Access to Justice Foundation,
compensation,
consumers,
insurance,
insurers,
justice,
LASPO,
legislation,
no win no fee,
referral fees,
success fees,
Which?,
whiplashThe Dale Farm saga has the power, it seems, to invoke passions as few other recent events. It has unleashed streams of vitriol on Twitter and in the blogosphere and a glut of contradicting information and claims. As well as the main protagonists, the Dale Farm residents and Basildon Council, a range of other supporting players have emerged to underline this isn’t just a legal, but a moral debate.
Read more...Being in power so you can implement party policy is the whole point of politics. At least, that’s what I have spent the last 20 odd years thinking. But, after just one evening at the Liberal Democrat conference, I have realised that actually the whole point of being in power is just that, being in power.
Read more...
