October 24th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
http://wwwm.coventry.ac.uk/cuc/Documents/Legal%20CPD%20invitation.pdf
There are still some places left on the course I am doing in conjunction with Coventry University College and 4KBW – use the above link to see the flyer and for how to book.
Hope to see you there!
October 22nd, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
I know I have been really bad not posting on here over the summer but I have been a busy girl, honestly!
I am running a Civil Litigation Update CPD course on 31.10.12 in association with Coventry University College and 4 KBW Chambers.
6 hours for only £99+vat including lunch – a bargain!
So if you need some last minute CPD points, follow the link below to book
https://www.eventsforce.net/cu/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=87977&eventID=419&eventID=419
July 26th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
It was May last year that I was bemoaning the change in the system whereby the claimant was no longer being provided with a sealed, issued copy of the claim form for claims which had to be issued out of the Salford Business Centre:-
http://www.lawadvice.uk.com/2011/05/my-letter-published-in-the-law-society-gazette/
and I envisaged problems for claimants if they didn’t have a sealed copy of the issued claim.
However, one problem I did not envisage has occurred with one of my clients.
He issued a claim through the Money Claims On Line (MCOL) portal and got default Judgment.
The Defendant applied for and was granted a set aside of that Judgment on the basis that the claim form should have been served on the Defendant’s solicitor, not the Defendant, and the Court Ordered that the claim form be re-served on the solicitors.
Putting aside whether there is actually the facility on the MCOL portal to put an address for service which is different to the Defendant’s address (I have no idea, I don’t use the portal as I don’t like the limited space for setting out the particulars of the claim), my client is now in the position of having to re-serve a form he does not possess.
He has printed off a copy of the completed form from the portal, which I sent to the other side, but of course this does not have the issue date nor a Court seal on it and the other side have rejected this as valid re-service.
I telephoned the Court and asked how we would go about getting a sealed copy of the issued claim form, and the person I spoke with said that they are not provided with a copy from MCOL either!
I wonder whether the Judge who made the Order realised the impasse his Order would produce??
July 9th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18760180
I utterly deplore any kind of discrimination – for me, people are people are people irrespective and I was always taught to treat people the way I would wish to be treated. Clearly sometimes in my job I do have to adopt a persona and be harsh and uncompromising – that’s all part and parcel of the role and it is understood that it is not personal.
Football seems to have its own rules and verbally abusing the opposition seems to be tolerated much more than in the average walk of life. However, even in football there seems to be a sea change and I was very relieved to see that the hyped racism in the recent Euro competition did not come to fruition.
It is also gratifying to see that the legal system is prepared to step in when a player seems to over-step the mark, as we are seeing this week with the John Terry trial for alleged racism against Anton Ferdinand.
What is interesting is that the defence seems to be not that Terry denies saying the words (in all honesty, how could he when it is all on film and even a moderately competent lip reader can understand what is being said). The defence seem to be:-
1. provocation in that Ferdinand was taunting him about an extra marital transgression;
2. whilst the words said were admittedly potentially racist, the way Terry said them was not in a racist way but in a sarcastic way.
More interestingly, Ferdinand admits that, at the time of the altercation, he did not feel racially abused and it was not until the clip of the incident was played back to him that he realised racist words had been used.
I do not know what the test is for the prosecution to make the case stick. Is it the recipient feels racially abused or is it that a right minded person would hearing those words or is it the intent of the person making the comments? I am sure the media reporting later in the week will make it clear.
What does make my blood boil, more than what was said, is that if Terry is found guilty he facing a maximum fine of £2,500!! Goodness knows how much the investigation and the trial will have cost – probably 100 times that figure, maybe more. And to someone as highly paid as Terry, £2,500 is a drop in the ocean.
Some will say that if found guilty it will adversely affect his career. If someone who has served time for violence offences is welcomed back into the fold (Joey Barton) I can’t see that a conviction for racist abuse will tarnish Terry’s reputation for long.
But on the up side, it has motivated me enough to write about it after a hiatus of weeks!
May 10th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
Strange as it may sound, this is absolutely true – I was even so amused that I made my bookeeper stop what she was doing to come and see.
As you probably know, hundred of thousands of public sector workers from lots of different sectors are on a 24 hour strike http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18010526. They are protesting about the proposed changes to pensions.
I am fully in support of peoples’ right to peacably protest and legitimately strike. I have no opinion about the proposed pension changes as I just don’t know enough about what is being proposed. This blog is not about the rights and wrongs of that.
However, yesterday I had cause to email Companies House. I applied to change a company name to a name with a protected term in it and of course need permission of the relevant regulating body before this can be done. So I was emailing the officer dealing with it to let them know where the process had got to.
This is the automated reply I received [sensative data deleted] :-
“I am on Strike Thursday 10th May and on Annual Leave Friday 11th May.
I will be back in the office on Monday 14th May.
If you have any issues regarding Sensitive Words please contact xxx on xxxxx or xxx on xxxxx on Frday 11th May, as they too will be on Strike on Thursday 10th.
If the matter is more urgent then please contact xxx on xxxxx, again on Friday as he will be on strike on THursday 10th.”
I just love the candor – so refreshing!
April 13th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
It is very unusual for something which I directly experienced to make national news but last night it happened. As I was preparing dinner (note to self, polenta does not make nice gnocchi) the house shook following a terrific noise.
It sounded like an explosion so I went outside to see whether I could see signs of anything but nothing.
I then checked the house to make sure it was nothing there.
I was just on the verge of knocking on the neighbour’s door in case they were in distress when I saw other neighbours now out on the street talking about it so I knew it was not a noise local to me and my neighbour.
The chatter on social media started almost immediately, but it only made the local tv news nearly an hour later and it wasn’t until nearly 2 hours later that the main stream media confirmed the source of the noise:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17697328.
In the meantime, there was great speculation on social media about what has caused the noise.
Some bright sparks knew that a sonic boom was most likely, which was dismissed by the great majority because logic said why would an aircraft be going supersonic over the midlands?
Others thought it was the cement works exploding (probably more wishful thinking from those people but that is a whole other post some time).
Still others thought it was an earthquake.
What no-one thought (save the typhoon crew and those who dispatched them) was that this was a hijacking or terrorism threat.
I do love the human races’ “keep calm and carry on” resilience.
March 30th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
You will have to bear with me on this post as it will probably ramble – but on the upside, at least I have found a topic to motivate me to write about after a hiatus of over a month (I can hear my SEO bod tut tutting – morning Karl).
My mum did a degree in sociology and education as a mature student at the same time as I was doing my law degree (in the good old days when the local authority picked up the bill for the tuition fees and gave a grant for living expenses, which for me was £600 per term which was more money than I had ever had in one go and I thought I was rich, but soon realised that it wouldn’t go far so got a job).
Anyway, the one thing I remember from my mum’s course was the notion of a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you tell someone often enough or enough people tell them once, for example, that they are stupid then the person will believe it and act appropriately no matter that they are actually very intelligent.
This is understandably very important to know in the education profession.
But I think it is also very relevant in every day life.
Just take as an example the vote by the fuel tanker drivers to strike. They have to give not less than 7 days notice of the date or dates of their action, and they haven’t yet done so. There is therefore no fuel shortage at this time because of strike action.
But because enough people have been saying to top up your cars just in case there is a fuel shortage, and because as a result enough people have been doing so, there is now a fuel shortage. The unions must be delighted at the show of strength even the ballot for strike action has demonstrated in advance of their ACAS talks on Monday!
Given that we are very good at self-fulfilling prophesising, imagine if we were able to harness this in a positive way?? The potential is scary, but in a good way.
February 24th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
Upon hearing this news item this morning
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17123531
I asked my daughter what she thought about it, whether she agreed that it was an inequality that women should be prefixed by their marital status and men not.
Her responses were as follows:-
1. that she thought it “nice” that people should acknowledge their marital status, so maybe there should be a male equivalent rather than abolishing the female form;
2. that if the French were going to do this, why not pick the term which has a nicer sound to it, “mademoiselle”, which will also then keep women forever young.
Ahh, the rose tinted world of the young, but I do think she has a couple of valid points.
I agree that there should be parity between male and females, after all in the scandinavian countries such prefixes are bizarre to them and they keep their “family” names throughout their lifetime irrespective of their marital status; but careful thought should be given to what should replace the current conventions if they are to appeal to future generations.
I do wonder why the French need to bother at all. Can they just not refer to themselves as “le” or “la” depending on whether they are male or female??
February 7th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
Now much as I grumble about our system, it could be worse – I could practice inAmerica.
A friend of mine brought this article to my attention (thank you Elizabeth) and gave me a laugh on a cold Tuesday morning http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16920866.
The animal campaign group PETA have brought a lawsuit in the name of 5 Orca killer whales demanding that they are released under 13th Amendment to the constitution, which abolished “slavery or involuntary servitude” in the US.
The Judge first has to decide whether animals could be represented as plaintiffs in a lawsuit.
I bet one of the whales, Tilikum, at least is hoping that they can’t as he drowned his trainer in February 2010 in front of spectators and has also been linked to two other deaths so would promptly be tried for murder and, being based in Florida, he would face the death penalty if found guilty!!
January 27th, 2012 by Marie-Claire Clinton
It has been an interesting week in the news for the Court system wrangling with the impact of juror’s behaviour on a fair trial.
Unsurprisingly, the juror who caused a retrial of a case for a serious violence offence was sentenced to 6 months for contempt of Court. Despite the jury being told very clearly by the Judge at the outset not to use the internet to research the defendant, she ignored this and found he had been previously accused of rape, and then told her fellow jurors about this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-16676871
Given the very real risk of spending time in jail for ignoring the Court’s instructions, those involved in the Rednapp/Mandaric trial should pay particular heed to the ban on the use of Twitter from inside the Courtroom!
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/twitter-ban-redknapp-trial
An even more bizarre example of a juror’s contempt of Court was the case of a juror calling in sick when he was actually taking the day off to see a West End show; as a consequence a day of the trial was lost.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-16288257
Not much harm, you may think, but I can assure you extending a trial by an extra day to make up for the lost one would be very expensive indeed.
As contempt of Court is a very wide concept, the best advice is ….. just do as you are told, dutifully!