With my usual and frankly uncanny ability to be a couple of days ahead of the zeitgeist, I posted on litigants-in-person a few days ago, only to see the Guardian do a feature piece on LiPs today. Granted they put a little more effort into it, and actually...
Oliver Twist
Not being satisfied with putting the boot in only once to Caroline 'Workhouse' Flint, I've had another go, this time in a podcast with Charon QC, now available for your listening pleasure. I hope and trust that this is giving the proposals more attention...
New news
I've been having a bit of a play. You may notice a new page tab for "Housing News Feeds" above. This has the RSS feeds of various housing related sites and blogs, so they will be constantly updated with any new items. Hopefully, it will be worth checking...
Birmingham v Aweys
Hot off the press - judgment released today. Birmingham, apparently intent on suicide, appealed the judicial review decision in Aweys. Birmingham City Council v Abdishakur Aweys & Ors [2008] EWCA Civ 48. They lost, badly, on all counts. Birmingham argued...
They'll have to wait
In a sudden rush we have: Court of Appeal: Greenwood Reversions Ltd. v World Environment Foundation Ltd. - and - Madhav Mehra [2008] EWCA Civ 47 on forfeiture of lease. House of Lords: Majorstake Limited (Respondents) v Curtis (Appellant) [2008] UKHL 10 on...
Caroline Flint speaks her brain
In a time when the shortage of social housing is at something of a crisis point, the housing minister has some thinking to share with us. Unfortunately, it is this. (Also BBC news page and the Guardian). Let us make the rash assumption that this proposal to...
Do you remember the first time?
Pupil barrister Scribbler encounters a litigant-in-person in action for the first time, and he sounds like a classic of the genre, issuing against multiple defendants 'so they could come to court to explain themselves', regardless of whether they actually...
Tenancy and occupation through employment
Wragg & Ors v Surrey County Council [2008] EWCA Civ 19 is an appeal on the refusal of some Right to Buy applications, but the main issue is when a tenancy falls under Schedule 1, para 2(1) Housing Act 1985, which provides: "… a tenancy is not a secure...
Adverse possession, Art 1 and acknowledgements
Ofulue & Anor v Bossert [2008] EWCA Civ 7 deals with an adverse possession case prior to the Land Registration Act 2002. Some notes: The (then) law on adverse possession does not breach Art.1 Protocol 1, Pye v United Kingdom [2007] ECHR 44302/02 applied....
LSC Judicial Review Mk 2
The Law Society is (just about) to file the second Judicial Review application of the Civil legal aid Unified Contract, this time arguing that, following the Court of Appeal judgment in the first JR, the LSC has to address the illegality of the current fixed...
Legal aid, negligence and the clients from hell
It's not a housing case, but Leonard & Leonard v Byrt & Others [2008] EWCA Civ 20 caught my eye as being of practical interest for legal aid practioners and potential amusement for everyone else. This was an appeal against a summary judgment against...
Hope over experience
Surprising being undeterred by the experience of the first podcast I did with him, Charon QC has demonstrated a generosity of spirit, if a lack of judgement, in doing another. We talk about training contract experience, smaller firms, and the sisyphean...