John Martyn RIP 

Not his biggest fan but this is a tremendous song:

Memory Lane 

The last time I went to Middlesbrough County Court was on an agency repossession matter in the early 90s. We got held over lunch time, the defendant had a liquid one and did little more than grunt in response to my “am am instructed to press for eviction” and for the only time ever I […]

Half On, Half Off 

Has it always been the case that you have to send a paper LF1 form in addition to your online submission? (We only prepare them and never send them out). Or is this requirement a new one and the dates on the LSC site are just wrong?

On The Train 

In these cash strapped times all our budgets (fully franchised ones with quarterly variance analysis etc.) are subject to scrutiny. Some things you can do without, however CPD points are not amongst them. For firms of a certain size in house courses offer a method for drastically reducing the pounds to points ratio. Even smaller […]

Grrrr 

It has been a day of frustrations, of various sorts, today – too many to mention here really. Suffice it to say I cant bung up the list of in-house training courses we currently have on offer, as I wanted. Hopefully I can do this tomorrow. As an aside the proposed changes to the family […]

Bibo No Aozora 

The last two films I have watched, Babel and Magnolia, were both rubbish. The latter disproves Mark Kermode’s “Philip Seymour Hoffman has never been in a bad film” rule of thumb. The only good thing about either were the soundtracks and here is the main theme from Babel by Ryuichi Sakamoto. It is a bit […]

More Graduation 

Regulars on recent Civil training events might remember our prediction that the move to “output” funding of the Family scheme is inevitiable. True to their word wen now have their proposals in this regard. (All 90 pages are currently printing beside me, I am in for another fun packed weekend). The further expansion of graduated […]

Ghost of POCA Past 

Having posted this earlier in the week the issue has of course come back to haunt me – and of course with about the most complicated circumstances imaginable. Has anyone been involved in a means referral to the Special Investigations Unit? Give us a ring if you have.

Apples and Oranges 

Andy spent some time with a client firm yesterday where there was a bit of concern that notional costs on PACE standard fee claims were dipping below the fee paid. Not a problem in and of itself under the CDS specification. There is even an argument that this demonstrates good, modern efficient practice – which […]

In Focus (on CDS 17) 

A regular topic of phone queries relates to the funding of assistance to clients facing confiscation, restraint and receivership under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Fortunately there is a very helpful grid explaining the options at Page 11 of this issue of Focus on CDS 17. Worth printing off and having to hand in our […]