Centres of excellence

Today’s post brought a first for me – though I would be delighted to hear from any other lawyers who have had a similar experience.

We have just issued proceedings in a personal injury claim arising out of a road traffic accident. We sued the negligent driver who knocked our client off his brand new motorcycle, and her insurers under the 2002 Rights Against Insurers Regulations.

Today we received notices of issue from the County Court Money Claims Centre in Salford. Just to be clear, these are the first and only notices of issue that we have received at this juncture. If that seems an odd statement then the explanation is that both the documents are stamped, in red, as follows:

‘AMENDMENT PURSUANT TO CPR 40.12’

Hands up if you have any ideas at this point. Nobody?

For those who might be wondering, there is nothing else on the face of the document that gives any clues. Procedural pedants in the audience will, I hope, quickly have picked up the fact that 40.12 is very specific in its application to correction of errors in judgements and orders. It tells us at sub-paragraph (1):-

                

‘The court may at any time correct an accidental slip or omission in a judgment or order’

Not a notice (of issue) then.

We gave up and rang the court office. My assistant tells me that the lady at the court was as confused as we are.

But it is reportedly good that we are closing court offices all across the country, making redundant people who have been doing the job for years (and know what they are doing), in favour of focusing resources in 'centres of excellence' to develop the specialist knowledge and expertise etc, etc...

Out of order

With so many cut price unqualified outfits now offering “legal services” it’s surprising that real solicitors can keep going if they don’t know what they are doing. Somehow, some do.  We had a cracking example last month.

A local lady got in touch with us to explain that mother was appointing her attorney within an LPA and she needed to make an appointment with a solicitor to witness her signature and certify her identity.

We are used to people contacting us about the ‘need for a solicitor to witness their signature’.  The actual requirement can be for one of a number of things from detailed advice on a guarantee liability or occupiers rights to a simple oath or statutory declaration.

Sometimes it’s just the witnessing of well, the signature of an attorney on an LPA.  That can of course be anybody other than the donor or an attorney.  It doesn’t need a solicitor.

Nor, as far as I and two of my better qualified colleagues are aware, is there any need at all for the witness – solicitor or otherwise – to obtain and certify identification of the signatory.

So, we were curious, and asked to see a copy of the letter from mother’s solicitor….

Sure enough, it stipulated that a solicitor would need to complete an ID1 which, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is a standard form of identification questionnaire typically used in connection with land registration applications and which requires amongst other things a certified photograph to be attached.

The point is, it’s not a two-minute job and even with the various elements divided efficiently between support staff and lawyer, it’s a time-consuming task for which we like others generally charge a few quid.

In this case, we haven’t charged anything for explaining to the local lady that she doesn’t need to come and spend money with us going through all this rigmarole. She doesn’t need us to witness her signature either.

What she does need to do is ask the solicitors acting for her mother to also review their requirements for signature of the LPA…

Inspection of their letter and enclosure reveals that only one page of the LPA has been sent to the attorney.  It’s not difficult to see why this poses a problem. All one has to do is read that page of the document and the bold statement above the signature boxes which declares that:

                By signing this section I understand and confirm all of the following:-

                                …

I have read this lasting power of attorney (LPA) including section 8 ‘your legal rights and responsibilities’, or I have had it read to me.

Well, as far as we know, the document has not been read over the telephone to our local lady and why would it be, when one can do as we do and post the entire LPA to the person who needs to read it and then sign – after the donor and the certificate provider have signed, not before.

There may be a further clue in the requirement that our lady should sign but “please ensure that the form is not dated”.

I have seen this done a few times, too.  The inference always to be drawn is that the signatures may not happen in any particular order but if all the dates are left blank then those can be filled in afterwards, to ensure an appearance of compliance.

Compliance in that respect is important.  There’s a strict sequence set out in regulation 9 of the LPA Regulations 2007. A letter such as the one we saw will cast doubt on the validity of the LPA, probably when it’s too late to fix the problem.

So, as they say in our beloved Eurovision, it’s nul points for this bunch of ‘experts’.  They probably deserve to be named but I am not that unkind.  Just be on your guard if you are in the South Bucks area.

Simple stuff, badly done.

Artificial 'intelligence'

First thing this morning, I am in hurry to check a couple of things through online banking...

 

I am not helped by the large pop-up that first appeared at the beginning of the month.  This tells me that in light of regulatory changes, from September 2019 all users will need smart cards and upgraded readers to log on to the server.  Because these will be posted “over the coming months” I need to ensure that our address and all user addresses, emails etc are up to date.

Apart from the fact that we already know they are, we have double-checked.  Ominously there was no facility anywhere to verify, to confirm that we had performed this task.

So, the pop-up keeps popping up as pop-ups do, getting in the way, opening another screen when I am trying to navigate through the information behind it.  But then, I have an idea…

I know.  Let’s give this “webchat” a try.  All that pink box at the top of the screen has done since it first appeared years ago is get in the way and irritate.  Perhaps it can be useful on this occasion.

I’ll ask it how to get rid it of its much larger colleague that obscures a quarter of the screen below.

There’s a drop-down menu of course and I don’t see as an option “how do I stop your infuriating pop-ups?”.  I picked the nearest subject and type something similar.

Now I am connected to “Cara”.  Cara doesn’t understand.

Let’s put it another way.  Nope - Cara still doesn’t understand.  

Perhaps Cara will understand ‘Artificial “intelligence” – fabulous!’

The one cheerful event in all this is that Cara recognizes sarcasm and knows, apparently, when to summon help.  Umar arrives in the conversation. 

In answer to the natural question, Umar confirms that he/she is a human being. Umar also advises that the pop-ups can’t be stopped. 😢

I am a big fan of technology.  We use email and other systems to an extent which visibly upsets some of the less progressive within our industry who can’t seem to let go of envelopes, stamps and cheques.

Online banking is a marvellous thing but features such as those I have described above aren’t.  I worry that these things have become an acceptable norm and will multiply and expand.

As a lawyer, I dread to think of the results of deploying this sort of “intelligence” in the creation of online courts.    

Educashun new's

A new low in standards last week from one of our industry’s supposedly leading education providers.

The advert for a webinar about the fine line between acceptable litigation tactics and the criminal offence of blackmail caught my eye because of an experience late last year. A young assistant at another firm on my patch told us that his client wanted three times the amount that his former employer wasn’t obliged to pay him anyway or he’d pursue his complaint to the ICO that his demand for a copy of every single document with his name on or in it which would “cause your client a significant time and financial burden in order to comply with its obligations” had not been met.

Long story short – I told the lad’s supervising partner (who sprang to his cub’s defence like a pride male lion in his prime) that there was no prospect of any apology and that all offers were withdrawn. Ex-employee actioned his threat to complain to the ICO and was told that his request was manifestly unreasonable. It was satisfying to hear that the complaint had vaunted a copy of my letter mentioning “the B word”.

So, my attention focuses on an email warning that it’s easy to overstep the mark. I don’t feel I need the webinar but I’m interested enough to read the summary – in which I learn about “The Blackmail Act”.

No, me neither.

I care enough about these things to have mailed the course provider and asked for the date of this statute. Naturally that has exposed the fact that the law is still s21 Theft Act 1968, as it was before Christmas.

The seminar presenter will no doubt ‘explain’ the error. I bet there’ll be some who still won’t get rid of the idea that there’s some new legislation on the books (chance would be a fine thing). Many others who have read the emails advertising this educational event will now have it in their heads and be citing it to others, only a few of whom may know enough to ask “WTF?!”

Next...

A few months ago my early morning reading included this little gem. There isn’t actually any error of law here but just look at the spelling, grammar and general presentation from one of the industry’s leading legal library providers.

Yes, you’ve guessed it – Mr Angry wrote to them too. Nice letter just referred to the highlighted deficiencies and invited comment.

Response? Nothing.

No “you’re right – that doesn’t meet the high standards our customers are entitled to expect of us and we’re sorry about this.”

Not even a “thanks for drawing that to our attention and we’ll investigate further”.

Absolutely nothing.

Why not? Are they too dumb to understand there’s a problem? Do they perhaps resent the fact that I’ve pointed out their inadequacy. Do they just not know what to do?

Whatever the explanation, it’s not good enough. At least the webinar providers came back to me within an hour or so to acknowledge the error and thank me for drawing attention to it.

The broader disturbing point is that the teachers seem to be incompetent. This is ultimately an ‘achievement’ of organisations who seem hell-bent on ripping standards down to the level of the only people who are prepared to work within those organisations and frankly wouldn’t have a clue what to do in the real world.

See you at the bottom. Or maybe not.

Out of the frying pan...

The Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Newlove reported last month in damning terms on the performance of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

The headnote on her Twitter page @VictimsComm says that “survivors of violent and sexual crime are being retraumatized by the CICA and left alienated and frustrated”. 

That’s a terrible indictment of an organisation that was set up to fill a gap so often left by shortcomings of the criminal courts, loopholes in the civil law and the impecuniosity of many perpetrators.

The report appears to identify unnecessary demands for information and the withholding of compensation on arbitrary grounds.  It is plainly wrong, but sadly it is nothing new.

The case that always sticks in my mind is that of a young matelot stationed at Yeovilton a number of years ago.  He was violently assaulted by a nightclub doorman during a “run ashore” in Chesterfield one Saturday evening.

Yes, he drank probably more than he should have done and might otherwise not have been quite so persistent in his attempts to persuade the dinner-suited sentinels that he should be allowed the opportunity to keep the party going.

But nothing he did could justify the actions of the bouncer who pushed the rest of his patient colleagues to one side and landed a punch that laid our young serviceman out cold on the pavement.  He cracked his head on the kerb as he landed, lost consciousness and subsequently lost interest in a promising, well paid and secure career in the Navy. 

Expert evidence from a consultant psychiatrist established that the change in our client’s psychological state was probably caused by the head injury he suffered as a result of the unlawful assault that evening.

On first application, he was awarded the princely sum of £6,000.  The only thing that was clear was that the award was insufficient.

So we appealed and eventually a new award was made.  This time it was zero.

Some bright spark got hold of the file and noted that the final chapter of the demise in our young man’s naval career was a spell of military correction at Colchester barracks. This was incorrectly viewed as a term of imprisonment equivalent to a sentence imposed by a criminal court and on that basis the applicant was deemed unfit to receive compensation.

When after approximately five years we finally dragged it to an appeal half-way up the country, a capable tribunal decided that the appropriate award was of a sum approximately 25 times the original award.  Result.

Even net of the substantial costs that were inevitably incurred in this unnecessarily long journey, our client was left with a sum of money sufficient to buy himself a house and give him a real start in a new career outside the Navy. It demonstrated to me, though, the terrible flaws in the system which were only overcome by a great deal of persistence and doggedness on the part of all the good guys.

This, unfortunately, is so often the face of “administrative justice”.  Anybody who has dealt with some of the ombudsman services which are so called created to provide Joe Public with affordable justice will understand the frustration.

There’s a sense that these bodies are there to draw in the unsuspecting hopefuls whose enthusiasm and will to live is then broken by what seems to be a mission only to protect the fund or those who might in theory be ordered to part with some money.

The route to redress is often limited, or virtually non-existent and where there is a chance to appeal, it’s a long and rocky road. As this latest inspection shows, things just get worse when they should get better.

For so many unfortunates who were persuaded to go it alone – that they didn’t need ‘expensive’ lawyers – it’s a journey out of the frying pan into the fire.

It isn’t good enough.  Well done to Baroness Newlove for carrying a torch.  I hope the consequences of her report are a much-needed reform of the CICA.

I hope also that it will foster a recognition that many of these organisations, which members of the public are encouraged to use on the ticket that they don’t need the assistance of a lawyer, are often traps for the unwary to be cheated and maltreated and left feeling that they wished they had never bothered.

A criminal waste of time and money..

It’s over two decades since I got to my feet in a criminal court of any description and, as a firm, we don’t deal at all with that area of work. 

So, whilst I'm pulling my hair out daily at the inadequacies of the civil court system, my understanding of the lamentable state of affairs on the other side of the fence comes from reading the depressing reports from many others (including an anonymous caped rabbit) [See footnote]. 

This week, however, came a chance to witness at first hand – well, via one of my team – whether or not it’s really as bad as they say it is…

Yes, it is.

What are we doing mucking about in the magistrates, first of all?  The answer is that we are running a road traffic accident claim for a cyclist who says that he was forced to leap from his (expensive) conveyance seconds before a large truck flattened the two of them.

Before he had even instructed us last year, our lad had received emails from the police assuring him that dashcam footage had been recovered from the owner of an oncoming vehicle and this showed that the incident occurred exactly as our client alleged.  We all felt good about that and the prospects of a guilty plea from the truck driver.

Sure enough, charges of driving without due care and attention, failing to stop and failing to report followed.  There was some debate about the failure to report where the police had stopped him a quarter of a mile up the road anyway.  He also had some argument about failing to stop but the boys in blue really couldn’t have been more confident about the due care.

Our client was told to ask us to get in touch with them for a copy of the dashcam footage.  We did.  We were then told to apply elsewhere – to ‘the decision makers’. Hold that thought.  Then we were told we couldn’t have it until after the prosecution was concluded.

In the meantime, remarkably it seemed, the truck driver’s insurers declined to admit liability.

A fortnight before Christmas, our client was notified that he would be required at Exeter Magistrates on Wednesday of this week for a trial, starting at 11:30.  After some deliberation, we decided that a watching brief might be a good idea.

Meanwhile, the hearing was brought forward to 10:00.  Knowing what I do from my daily interaction with the Twittersphere, I wondered if that was a good idea.

Well, just for the record, on the day there were of course half a dozen customers in the cells that needed to be dealt with before our trial.  The morning and early afternoon passed, punctuated only by brief trips to the court room to be told to come back in an hour or so. 

By mid-afternoon, there was talk of a possible adjournment and then at 15:00 the prosecutor announced that following discussions the two minor charges would be dropped and the driver was going to plead guilty to the due care and attention.

Why?

Well…at some point the defendant’s solicitor had caught mention of some dashcam footage and remarked that this had not been seen.  The video evidence was shown to the defendant who promptly put his hands up and explained that he simply hadn’t seen our client or his bicycle.

Having regard to the size of the vehicle he was driving, the court administered seven penalty points and a bill for nearly £1,500 in fine, costs, compensation and victim surcharge. One would think that an admission of liability in the civil claim will now follow, promptly or otherwise.

I struggle to understand how it is that a simple case like this can reach five hours after the appointed time before somebody – anybody – looks up and says, “this dashcam footage - shall we have a butcher’s at it while we’re waiting?”.

My assistant overheard the conversation after lunch when the (Romanian) defendant’s solicitor told the translator that the CPS had dashcam footage but he hadn’t yet seen it.  He had also explained to the CPS, in response to the suggestion of an adjournment, that they were paying for the translator to be there and would have to meet that expense again if the case wasn’t dealt with today.

Whatever the explanation, there is a short piece of film from 9 months ago that, once shown to the defendant, immediately proved to him that he had indeed fallen into error on that day.

This fits with what the police told our client and us from the outset.  If matters had proceeded then as we were led to believe, we would have been in a position to show that evidence to the insurers who, if they were paying the bill for representation, would probably have made known the hopelessness of the defence. 

Why is it that from the point where the file moves from police to prosecutor and then until the brink of an adjournment nobody but the prosecution representatives get to see the simple damning evidence?

Why wasn’t this brief footage simply given to the defendant himself from the outset?  He may not be able to read English but visual images need no translation? 

The result, apart from a due care conviction on a guilty plea (oh, well done indeed the CPS!) is a wasted day with attendant expenses and losses for the defendant and three witnesses.

Also, there’s the wasted cost to the public purse of a prosecuting solicitor, an interpreter and precious court resource.  You and I will pay for that.

Presumably the cost of the defence solicitor will fall to insurers who will use that and similar cases as part of the excuse for putting up our next motor premium.

Yes, I lost an assistant for a day and I gained very little for her remuneration and travel expenses but I had already accepted that that would be irrecoverable whatever the outcome.  Still, it could have been spared.

What a calamitous waste of everybody’s time and money just because there is nobody with the wit and motivation to play an incredibly easy ball.

---

Footnote: For anyone who doesn’t recognise it, the reference is to The Secret Barrister (@BarristerSecret) 

Not much COP

On the foulest of mornings at the start of last November, counsel set off from Cardiff at hideous o’clock bound for Telford and a dispute resolution hearing in a deputyship application in the Court of Protection (COP).

Don’t ask me why this event took place in Telford.  It was marginally less inconvenient for our septuagenarian client who had to travel from Gloucester.  The only thing that doesn’t call for much explanation is the fact that there was no sortie from this office in the darkness, wind and (copious) rain.

It all seemed worthwhile.  Counsel – and others involved – did an admirable job of achieving agreement on all matters except the costs which in turn all agreed to leave open for further argument.  Meanwhile, a fairly acrimonious dispute between three sisters about the welfare of their ageing mother took a big step towards conclusion.

Counsel was required to perfect, agree with our opponents and email to the court a very long draft order that same day.

After waiting (perhaps too) patiently five weeks for the court to print the order that everyone including the judge had agreed and apply a seal to it, we wrote on 14 December to ask what had happened to it.  We had a nice email telling us that it had been referred to the judge on 9 November and they had received no reply.

“However, looking at your email it was already stated that the order had been approved by the DJ…”

There followed the reassurance that the court had “moved the order to urgent tops” with the hope that they would “draw (??) and send the order out by no later than..” 21 December.

Naturally we chased again at the beginning of this week.  Then comes the explanation that, apparently, they are not allowed to “emboss” an order in Birmingham.  It has to go to London for this complex procedure to be performed.

I suppose I should be thankful that we are actually getting communications direct from the court at the moment.  Since this case was transferred to the Midlands Regional Hub the court office has consistently ignored the fact and reminders that we went on record at the start of proceedings (the London office got that right too) and insisted on sending notices by post to our client.

On the first occasion, in July, the notice was unseen for a period of three weeks because our client was away from home.  The upshot was that we had a week’s notice of the first hearing and yet had to go to the expense of a formal application to adjourn to the beginning of October.  That hearing was later adjourned at a week’s notice for we don’t know what reason.

It all creates unnecessary expense and worry for the children of the patient who themselves are of advancing years and prefer not to have to travel half way up and down the country at short notice.  There’s also the delay of many months before the financial affairs of the patient can be dealt with.  Even now we don’t have the essential deputyship order two months after the agreed draft was filed by email ready to print.

Far and away the greatest share of responsibility for the delay, expense and frustration rests with The Court Service.  I am sure that at Birmingham, as elsewhere, there are well-meaning and capable people – good people – who are doing their best and I intend no criticism of them for that.

I do intend criticism of the MOJ, and the government, for emasculating a service which in consequence is not providing the protection it should to the increasing numbers of our ageing population.