Your Letters – Page 13
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Opinion
Cocktail of muddle and delay
Having practised in residential conveyancing for most of my working life, I was recently reminded of just how bad things have become.
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Opinion
Righting wrongs
Your 12 November article on bullying in the courtroom is a timely reminder of certain practices that have absolutely no place in our judicial system. But may I raise just one note of caution.
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Opinion
It’s a dog’s life
There seems to be an increasing trend to take your pooch to the office. Indeed, one firm boasts as many as three office dogs on its website.
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Opinion
No complaints
With regard to the SRA register of disciplinary sanctions, perhaps the regulator would also open a register of all our (very justified) criticisms of its operation.
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Opinion
A private function
To deny the seriously injured the right to choose private treatment would grossly undermine the most important aim of compensation
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Opinion
Blame game
I suppose it rarely crosses the minds of property or commercial lawyers that they may create enmities sufficient to provoke violence. For criminal lawyers, there is the reassurance that they are on the side of those who might harbour and carry out violent acts. For the family lawyer it can ...
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Opinion
Flexible hours can’t always work
Proposals to increase the diversity of the profession are sometimes incompatible with the day-to-day realities of legal practice
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Opinion
Who speaks for me?
Diversity is obviously commendable, but what about the working-class white male?
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Opinion
Closing time
Eduardo Reyes makes a number of valid points in ‘How to close a law firm’. In my experience, it is never too soon for smaller firms to address this issue because by doing so their exit options are massively increased. I recommend that all firms give themselves at least five ...
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Opinion
Purple lifeboat holed
The ‘real’ daily rate for a deputy district judge has effectively made the role an expensive hobby. If this continues standards will only fall
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Opinion
Mediation misunderstood
I read with interest John Hyde’s ‘The mediation dilemma’. I retired from private practice in April to focus on my mediation practice. I have seen mediation from two perspectives – that of the solicitor advising his client and then as mediator. I am not sure that some lawyers see the ...
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Opinion
Arrest report
The Home Office recently reported that the total number of arrests has fallen from 1.5 million in 2008 to 779,660 in 2017 (a total drop of 48%). In fairness to the police, it should be acknowledged that making an arrest is not a prerequisite for an offence to be properly ...
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Opinion
People power – the new normal
Law firms that put intellectual capital before personal gain should be applauded. Accepting a lower return is a price worth paying
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Opinion
Chain reaction
‘Blockchain deal bodes ill for conveyancers’, the Gazette reported on 16 October. At their own risk, parties can always bypass solicitors and, for example, prepare their own transfer deed, so it is surprising the Gazette devotes space to this. Neil Singer seems not to understand the purpose of land ...
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Opinion
Heavy price of 'efficiency'
One of the reasons why the defence solicitor son of your recent correspondent is ‘paid a pittance’ (letters, 16 October) may be the profession’s lemming-like acceptance of so-called ‘franchising’ and the time-limited criminal contracts in the late 1990s. Such unthinking acceptance eliminated local independence and competition. It ceded effective control ...
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Opinion
The force is against you
I read with sympathy the letter headed ‘Why is my son paid a pittance?’. The answer, however, is very simple: market forces. I am told that when I qualified in 1969 there were about 26,500 practising solicitors in England and Wales. There are now over 140,000 (news, 23 October). Michael ...
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Opinion
It all adds up
With regard to VAT on online property searches, surely any solicitor acquiring such a search will spend time on assessing the search, charge for that time and add VAT on that charge. Perhaps I am over simplifying, but does that not answer all the tribunal judge’s (and HMRC’s) arguments? ...
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Opinion
System failure
The government should acknowledge that court fees are a hidden tax – its deceit is made worse by deteriorating service levels.