Tell It Like It Is...

[liadnan]

Via both Geeklawyer and RollonFriday the best lawfirm website ever at Buglear Bate. See in particular the step-by-step guide to getting the best out of your solicitor and the guide to legal aid

Comments

[fi.livejournal.com]

Oh that is classic. Particularly the Freemasons bit.

I wonder how many people have Googled "Bugbear and Late"?

[liadnan]

I think my chambers' website should take a leaf from their book.

[eccles.livejournal.com]

It isn't a terrible website but oy, that picture does you no favours.

[liadnan]

Hush now or they'll all want one.

Actually we are having a new website and new pictures when Something Happens next week.

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. Does Buglear Bate do legal aid?

Er... no. We used to, but we got too used to living indoors and eating.

Oh dear, I can't breathe! Stomach...muscles...hurting...

[liadnan]

Very true though. There is a growing problem with firms declining to do legal aid work.

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

Yup, thus neatly handing the balance of power to the side that can afford to keep the case going. Can't blame them, though, I just googled how much they are paid and the hourly rates don't seem to have increased since 1995.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

In Scotland, lawyers are threatening to take on no more legal aid until the rates get increased. (It may be UK-wide, but I heard about it on Radio Scotland.)

However, the main impact of this seems to be the cancellation of all trials involving sex offenders, since they aren't allowed to represent themselves.

So I don't think the lawyers will be getting too much public sympathy for that, then!

[liadnan]

Not sure strikes are particularly aimed at getting public sympathy: they're aimed at bringing home the consequences of a withdrawal of labour.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hypatia_/]

It took me three attempts to realise that the Freemason page was as intended, I nearly mailed them...doh.

Re: getting the best out of your solicitor
8 [This is Crucial] Be very nice to The Secretary.

I'd say that is a fundamental truth and not just for lawyers - Secretaries, Clerks, PAs or whomsoever are the very first people to get on your side. They are far more powerful advocates than mere lawyers/professional, because they can gain for you the *actual attention and time* of the auspicious one :)

[liadnan]

For litigation lawyers themselves it translates to "be very nice to the court usher"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hypatia_/]

I'll bear that in mind when I need them...
I'm working in our plush office opposite Old Bailey at the moment. I'd forgotten the long queues of people in the rain every morning, the road closures at tea time, the armed police who look younger every year and the way its proximity generates legal musings in the displacement conversation in the office.

[liadnan]

We should drink if you're around all week or longer and have time.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hypatia_/]

Yes that would be good - I'll be there for at least a few weeks it seems but not every day. Thursdays generally a good bet but not this week as I've a few days off. Maybe next week or week after?

[liadnan]

Sorry, keep forgetting to reply to this. This week/next week sometime?

[anarcha.livejournal.com]

I have a habit of bringing the support staff at my firm cookies any time they expend a lot of effort on my behalf (i.e turning around a copying project very quickly). It pays off dramatically.

[liadnan]

Wise woman. Keeping clerks sweet is even more important at the independent bar here, somehow if you don't then the work begins to slacken off.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hypatia_/]

Its because their blood sugar is too low to carry the briefs over.

[lexin.livejournal.com]

I love that page...thanks. That is screamingly funny - particularly loved the bit on the conveyancying page about, "Few solicitors are immune to the charm of a barely legible, unpunctuated, antique conveyance containing oblique references to long lost plans which may have the effect of preventing the land being used for anything other than a quarry."

It reminds me very much of one of the solicitors I work with (you'll recall I'm that special species of vermin, a civil servant) who loves to lead his client down similar blind alleys in European Directives.

And my work has a serious document called 'getting the best out of your lawyer'. It's a hoot. I sometimes wonder if there's one for them called 'How not to annoy your client.'

[liadnan]

You have to have something to amuse yourself in this profession.
But yes, actually, I have a whole training handout on client relations, (lay and professional clients) holding up a corner of my desk at present.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

When I read your post, I thought it was a spoof - I read "Burglar & Bates"!

I didn't realise law practices had a sense of humour!