Solicitors from Hell

No surprise that the Law Society has picked up on the existence of the ‘Solicitors from Hell’ website, which it says is ‘not a credible source of reliable information about solicitors’. The only surprise is how its taken this long, but apparently as a result of some recent media attention (none that I have seen) [...]

Manners Maketh a Lawyer

I had a particularly taxing day at court recently. My opponent solicitor and I did not – ahem – gel. My attempts to engage in negotiation met with much dramatic huffing and flinging about of the word ‘nonsense’, escalating to swearing and door slamming of a most juvenile kind. You know constructive dialogue is at [...]

Barrister in ‘No Duty to Child’ Shock

One of the first things we are taught in bar school is that our job is to ‘promote and protect fearlessly and by all proper and lawful means the lay client’s best interests and do so without regard to his own interests or to any consequences to himself or to any other person’ (pa 303). Hand [...]

Advertising Bar

I noticed the full page advert on the front inside cover of last month’s counsel magazine and raised an eyebrow. It was a ‘desperately seeking pupillage’ advert from an individual. Determined, I thought. Creative. And pretty cringeworthy. But the boundless entertainment that Counsel provides no doubt drew me onwards and I passed over it without much [...]

Intercontinental Mistakes

Oh how true…This post from the Maryland Divorce Legal Crier blog is no less relevant for being from across the pond. It paints an all too familiar picture of the cringeworthy correspondence files I often get sent with my briefs. It makes me want to weep! Its easy enough to get drawn into a pointless [...]

Handling your own divorce – who needs lawyers?

District Judge Gerlis has recently written a piece for The Times setting out his ten reasons why representing yourself in a divorce might not be the best idea. No doubt inspired by Heather Mills’ decision to run her own case, I think we’d all agree that where such large sums of money are at stake [...]

waning interest…waxing larger

i am watching with dismay my declining hit stats on this blog, no doubt somewhat connected to my almost complete failure to post anything newsworthy or interesting in the last several weeks (or longer if i’m honest)…the fact is that sometimes the day to day to-ing and fro-ing at the family bar and the pressures [...]

Shrinking the Lawyers

There is a really interesting article in the December issue of Family Law (Fam Law [2007] 1107) entitled ‘Attachment Problems Among Lawyers’. In it Dr George Hibbert, a consultant Psychiatrist, writes about the issue of attachment in the family courts. . Ordinarily family lawyers come across attachment theory in expert court reports, particularly in care [...]

Flying Carpets and Turkish Delight

I am flabbergasted at this story. In summary a well respected High Court Judge in the Family Division has been roundly condemned by the Court of Appeal for making a string of remarks which were pointedly referring to the ethnic origin of one of the parties, namely a wealthy Sheikh. Mr Justice Singer has publicly [...]

Magistrate’s Religious Discrimination Claim Rejected by EAT

The EAT has rejected Mr McClintock’s appeal in this case. More detail than was previously available from press reports is apparent from the judgment, in summary: Mr McClintock’s strongly held view was that the question of allowing same sex couples to adopt children had not been sufficiently researched and tested and that by making it [...]