23 February 2012
Suzie Fisher writes: The High Court has ruled that legal claims can now be served by Facebook in Britain. On occasions it is difficult to locate parties in a case and Facebook is routinely used to serve claims in Australia and New Zealand. Some lawyers feel it is a natural progression, particularly in instances where it is the only way to identify someone – and Twitter has already been used in this way. This ruling by the High Court will set a precedent and it is likely that service-via-Facebook will become more common in cases where a home address cannot be found for the person and all other avenues have been explored.
By Alison Hine, 23 February 2012 –
26 January 2012
Suzie Fisher writes:
One question often asked by clients, is how long their case is going to take to get to Court. But the fact is that in most cases they never get to Court because the vast majority of claim settle.
To help answer this question, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published a new online tool on the Open Justice website that allows the public to view the length of time to trial for cases in the county courts (seeOpen Justice: The truth about civil cases ).
The tool, which is part of the MoJ's drive to improve the transparency of the justice system by increasing accessibility to information, provides statistics for individual county courts, as well as the national average for England and Wales, allowing the public to make comparisons between different areas. It also confirms that typically only about 3-4% of civil claims brought to the county courts require a hearing.
Locally, Kendal is quickest at getting Small Claims Hearings dealt with at 26 weeks, compared to Carlisle (34) and Lancaster (31). However Kendal is the slowest for Fast Track and Multi Track cases at 93 weeks, compared to Carlisle (73) and Lancaster (60).
By Alison Hine, 26 January 2012 –
06 October 2011
Today marks the opening up of the provision of legal services to other providers who may not be lawyers.
Naomi Fell says “Whilst we at Hayton Winkley acknowledge the fact that people are free to choose where they obtain their legal services, we do pride ourselves on offering a competitive quality service provided by specialist lawyers who have trained for many years. We urge people to look closely at what they get for their money if they go to providers who are not solicitors. We believe that some providers are not being transparent regarding hidden costs and may not be qualified to give the advice offered. Ultimately in life, you get what you pay for!”
By Alison Hine, 06 October 2011 –
19 September 2011
Amanda Marwood writes: Further to our blog regarding the requirement to register small domestic sewage discharges and small sewage treatment plants posted September 2010, do please note that a joint review is now underway with the Environment Agency and the Government, details of which are expected to be announced shortly.
As such, whilst the review is underway, the Environment Agency does not require the registration of small domestic sewage discharges, including septic tanks, in England. It is however, still compulsory in Wales.
Home owners may however, still opt to register if they wish
By Alison Hine, 19 September 2011 –
01 July 2011
We are running some training courses in conjunction with CREA (Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency) in Kendal. Click here for more details
By Alison Hine, 01 July 2011 –