Legal profession
Contentious Business
Under the Regulations it is illegal for a solicitor to advertise “No win, no Fee”. Solicitors are not permitted to calculate their fees by reference to a percentage of the compensation recovered for the client. (Or as the Regulations put it, “In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement”.
The Medical Expert
The issue in a medical negligence action is whether the defendant deviated from approved or appropriate practice. It is an error, usually, to think that the plaintiff will succeed if he/she proves that there would have been no injury had the defendant followed a different course of action. (The exceptional case where it would not be an error would be one where the court was persuaded that the conventional practice carried such obvious defects that it was indefensible and where the court effectively condemns the defendant and the practice.)
Tough Times?
For solicitors in Ireland income from conveyancing has “fallen off a cliff”. Solicitors practicing in that area were very likely to have taken an investment share in some development or other. (There is a marketing opportunity here for tee-shirts; “the devil made me …..” (insert suitable words)).
Civil Justice
The debate has the unseemly presence of Lord Woolf in it. It is unseemly for him to “defend” his “reforms”. The subject is too important to be tainted by an effort to defend a personal investment.
Judges’ Wigs
The real purpose is to assert wordlessly, the finality of rational adjudication from the judge. That is, it is intended to define rationality by reference to the wig; rationality emanates from the wig. Without it, there is doubt and possibly confusion.
I Swear…
Legal practitioners easily forget how arcane it is to do what they do. When the time comes they recognise one thing; giving evidence is intimidating.
Filthy Capitalists!
Neither the Government nor the Rules Committee of the Superior Courts have ever shown the slightest interest in facilitating litigation. In fact, the Government has positively legislated to obstruct and undermine personal litigants (as opposed to corporate litigants) from vindicating attacks on their rights or entitlements.
Fighting (1)
Litigation lawyers fight. If a lawyer is not generally fighting, he/she is not in litigation. Sometimes the lawyer is fighting for a plaintiff and sometimes the lawyer is fighting for the defendant.
O’Leary’s Benefaction
There seems to be no end to the debt of gratitude the Irish (and now, the English) legal profession owe to the managing director of Ryanair. He has clarified the words of a suitable jurisdiction clause on websites to confer jurisdiction within the EU. See HERE for how he did it. (This writer has adapted those words below to accommodate his purposes and intentions. Feel free to appropriate the clause without attribution, but on terms of repudiation of liability by […]