Book Burning
It is being reported that a fifteen-year-old girl has been arrested for burning a copy of the Koran.
My father was a printer and bookbinder and to me, all books are to be treasured and not defaced or burnt in any way. Perhaps, when a book has been fully read, it should be passed on, but only in the last resort, should it be burned and then to do something positive like generate heat.
So the girl was wrong in what she did and arresting her for what was probably a childish act, will only encourage others to do similar things.
We need a lot more tolerance and common-sense.
Especially in these days, where we have had the Sunningdale and Milton Keynes murders and the Derby sex attacks to keep the Police busy, with more much serious problems that could be considered to a racial dimension.
An Incident at the County Court
This was a letter to one of C’s colleagues, who was defending a fan with a serious illness, who had a nose bleed and spread it alkl over the County Court in Ipswich
Letter to a Barrister
The barrister in question is now a judge and does not seem to have suffered any ill effects from the incident.
Zoe Renault
Another legal spat reported in the Telegraph.
Interestingly in France, where I thought they had better things to do.
A Spat Over a Breast Enhancement Cream
There is a legal spat going on between a company called Rodial and a plastic surgeon called Dr. Dalia Nield. You can read about it in this article in The Independent.
It strikes me that this one will run and run, but it could be one that falls into that category, where someone makes a legitimate comment, from professional knowledge and experience, and someone else decides they’ll challenge that statement in the Courts by suing for libel. Read the article in The Independent and you will see that Dr. Nield is supported by Sense About Science, a charity which fights against these actions and in the past supported the author, Simon Singh.
These sort of actions worry me, as I have pretty strong opinions on some controversial subjects and one of these days I might arouse the ire of a rather nasty snake oil salesman. So I will not come down in favour of one party or another.
I do know of Rodial though, but in a strange way. At least twice a week for several months, I have got a sales e-mail from them. When I got the first, I thought it was a spam e-mail, as it was trying to sell me a breast enhancement cream or other such product, that I have no need for. Mainly because I’m a man, but also because I don’t use any creams or potions at all. I should also say, that, I’ve seen lots of this type of e-mail from spammers in the United States and as this email seemed little different, I immediately regarded it as being of the same type, even though it enlarged breasts rather than the male organ. I didn’t even bother to try to unsubscribe, as it came from a retired e-mail address, I don’t use very often. So that means they must have obtained an old list from somewhere. I wonder what the Information Commisioner would say about that. I’m not bothered, as I just set the spam filter to drop them straight into the Spam Folder, as I do for most of the spam I get, as often unsubscribing tells the spammer that the e-mail address is real.
Hasty Legislation Often Doesn’t Work
This article entitled London landlords cash in as MPs play by the rules, also in the Independent, shows how when you do things quickly, you often don’t get the result you wanted. Before the expenses claim, this article says that the average monthly mortgage claim was £694.63. Now the average rental claim is £1,173.81.
It sounds like in order to get the morality right, we have created a system that doesn’t give the best value in all cases.
C would have thought this par for the course, as the number of times she came home complaining how the new laws about families, children, divorce and dogs were often worse than those that had been in force before.
Simon Barnes on Liverpool and Money in Sport
Simon Barnes is my favourite sports writers and his piece on Liverpool in today’s paper is one of his best. And that is praise indeed, as to beat his usual high standard takes doing.
This is the opening paragraph.
What’s the difference between Peter Ridsdale at Leeds United and the Tom Hicks-George Gillett Jr regime at Liverpool? Answer: Ridsdale tried to use money to acquire glory; Hicks and Gillett tried to use glory to acquire money.
As the two Americans are saying they’ll be suing RBS for $1.6billion, I suspect that some journalists, who have put the boot into the two, may well be up for feeling the long arm of the American Legal System.
At least though our judges will probably protect those that need to be protected.
Liverpool on the Brink
Of what I’m not sure! But it looks like now that the Texas Legal System has got involved, that things will get more uncertain for the club.
I can’t see what a Texas Court has got to do with a deal done in the UK involving a British Bank, two individuals and an English football club. On the other hand I can understand why RBS don’t want to go against the US Courts, as there have been some rather one-sided results in the past, like the NatWest Three.
Choosing A Lawyer
I’m always being asked how I choose a lawyer or a solicitor and as I’m clearing out some old web sites, that I no longer need, I thought might be worth repeating what C and I wrote together a few years ago on choosing a lawyer. Note lawyer, not solicitor, as C was a barrister.
The trouble with choosing a lawyer is that many people never do it more than a few times in their lives. Some never do at all! And when they do, it’s usually for something like the purchase of a house or a flat.
But what do you do if you have a debt to recover, your marriage has fallen apart and you are getting divorced or you need to make a will?
Often the solicitor you dealt with when you purchased your last house, may not be the person to deal with for something completely different. But if you were satisfied with them, you could always start by giving them a call. If it’s not their company’s field, they will usually recommend a suitable alternative.
But what if you don’t have a solicitor for your problem and need one urgently.
• The first thing to do is to collect all the information you think you will need. If say you are collecting a debt, make sure you all the paperwork and copies of all the letters and e-mails you have sent and received. With a divorce, try and collect as much of the details of your mortgage or rent agreements, financial arrangements, salaries and anything else that might be useful. With a good solicitor just doing this will save you money.
• Think too about the type of solicitor you want to deal with. Do you want an agressive Alpha male or a sympathetic woman? Do you want to deal with them through e-mail? Do you want a solicitor who is close to where you live or work?
• If you type “solicitor Your Town” into Google, you will find quite a lot of solicitors.Not all will be the ones for you!.
• Now look at each individual web site and see if they fit your criteria. Some can be immediately removed as say they don’t handle your type of problem, they appear to be far too grand or small, or in some cases they handle Legal Aid, which you may need.
• Look too at the specialist legal bodies they belong to. For instance, organisations like Resolution and the Family Mediators Association are groups of lawyers, who specialist in family law and mediation. Check out the web sites of any organisations named on the web site.
• Many firms of solicitors have web pages that describe in detail how they would handle your problem. They also give brief biographies of the lawyers who might handle your case. If this helps, put them on your short list.
• If the firms on your list have e-mail and that is one way you want to deal with them, then send them a properly constructed message describing your problem. And don’t forget to ask for an estimate as to costs! If they don’t reply promptly and sensibly, then perhaps they shouldn’t be on your list.
But remember as in all purchases, don’t just use the first solicitor you talk to. Try a couple and see if any are better suited to your problem and your pocket.
So be very careful, as a bad lawyer might cost you more than you expect.
Prison Population Rises Again
It was also announced in Saturday’s East Anglian Daily Times, that the prison population has risen again to its highest level ever.
In other words, prison doesn’t seem to be working!
Bad Dog Owners
Some work done by I think the Metropolitan Police showed that if they stopped a car with no Road Tax, insurance or MOT, then there was a fifty percent chance that the occupants of the car were committing or had committed another non-motoring offence.
I wonder if similar research has been done into the owners of hard-looking dogs, when they walk around the streets, giving a message, that we don’t want to see!
I suspect, it would show similar results to the cars.
The Anonymous Widower 