Monthly Archive for November, 2006

Even solicitors don't like solicitors

By NL on 23/11/2006. 12 Comments

I was alternately amused and vaguely saddened by an article in the Law Gazette on the public’s continued perception of solicitors as only slightly higher up the ladder of moral evolution than estate agents. As a profession, Which? have found, solicitors are complained of as arrogant, elitist, failing to listen to clients, billing unexpectedly and not telling clients how cases are going.

That is probably fair enough, although I suspect a fair few legal aid solicitors won’t be happy at having their public image determined by the general public’s experience of conveyancers, PI claims managers and probate jockeys. Or, more respectfully, the range of fields and issues through which people … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , .

Assured tenant or trespasser? The waiting begins.

By NL on 23/11/2006. 0 Comments

Table of contents for Tolerated Trespassers

  1. Tolerated Trespassers – the aftermath
  2. Tolerated trespassers: A Luta Continua
  3. Postponing Possession. Are you now and have you always been a tenant?
  4. Assured trespassers?
  5. Assured tenant or trespasser? The waiting begins.
  6. Postponed assured trespassers verdict soon(ish).
  7. Permanent trespassers and enforceable possession orders.
  8. More on London & Quadrant v Ansell
  9. White v Knowsley – Court of Appeal Judgment
  10. Reincarnation of Tenancy?
  11. S.85 Application Randomness
  12. Permanent trespassers – a fan letter
  13. Payne-less
  14. Post mortem revival of tenancy
  15. When does enforceability end?

On the vexed question of whether a breach of an old style Suspended Possession Order ended an assured tenancy and left a tolerated trespasser, we … Read the full post

Posted in assured-tenancy, Housing law - All, secure-tenancy and Tolerated trespasser. Tags: , , , .

Legal Aid. Not funny. At all.

By NL on 18/11/2006. 0 Comments

Now we know that the Lord Chancellor’s vow to the Law Society that changes in non-criminal legal aid were postponed for a year only apply, post ‘clarification’, to Family, it is time for a serious look at the new contract for civil legal aid.

First of all, remember that the tailored fixed fee for Legal Help, based on each firm’s ‘average’ Legal Help costs over previous years, is to be replaced by a ‘national’ or ‘regional’ fixed fee for Legal Help. Every survey has suggested that the (large) majority of firms will lose on the proposed figures.

The good news from the new contract is that Certificated work will not … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Better (too) late than never

By NL on 10/11/2006. 0 Comments

After dipping its toe in the water of protest with a petition, as previously mentioned, the Law Society has finally decided that a campaign to defend legal aid might be in order. Only a year or several late, but I’d urge everyone to add their support, write to their MPs, via writetothem.com for easy access, and generally let slip the dogs of war.… Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , .

Over sensitive

By NL on 09/11/2006. 0 Comments

Apologies to anyone who isn’t a comment spammer and found themselves blocked from the blog. I was trying out ‘Bad Behaviour’, which promised to block suspicious activity. It did. It also blocked me.

It turned out that a zealous spam IP blacklist that the plug-in used had listed my then adsl dynamic IP address. I had presumably just inherited the address from some poor mug with a home PC that is part of some romanian controlled botnet pumping out spam.

Please people, if you must use a Windows machine, take all necessary precautions. My spam load has recently shot through the roof. Apparently an estimated 4.8 million Windows PCs worldwide … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , .

Public Law 2.0

By NL on 09/11/2006. 0 Comments

Nick Holmes has a very interesting post at Binary Law on the future of Law publishing in a world of social software.

I’ve been wondering about similar things recently, both in general and in particular, following an examination of my server logs, and Nick Holmes’ post crystallised a few thoughts.

I’m not going to go into detail on the possible market and access shifting changes that could be involved, as these are set out with great clarity in Nick’s post. Suffice it to say that a move to a primarily open (if not necessarily free), user produced, and distributed (in the sense of cross source/site/contributor) model is envisaged.

Legal … Read the full post

Posted in Various (non-housing). Tags: , , , , .

Spitting feathers

By NL on 04/11/2006. 0 Comments

Background. Another disrepair case against a private landlord. Another successful application for default judgement, granted about 6 months ago. Solid evidence. All the directions for quantum hearing complied with by us, to nil response from the landlord.

Three days ago, having served the trial bundle for the quantum hearing, we got a letter from the landlord’s newly appointed solicitor suggesting a deal may be possible. Yesterday, they finally responded to phone calls left and laid out the deal – we drop the disrepair claim, no costs, and they won’t make an application to set aside the default judgement.

Much laughter was had. Yes, there were substantial rent arrears (housing benefit … Read the full post

Posted in Housing law - All. Tags: , , .
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