Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Fri Dec 19, 2014 7:57 am  

If you were giving career advice to a room full of eager young students, would you seriously advise them that the legal profession was a morally better choice than say, prostitution? It'll be interesting to see what the SRA have to say about this motley crew

If you were giving career advice to a room full of eager young students, would you seriously advise them that the legal profession was a morally better choice than say, prostitution? It'll be interesting to see what the SRA have to say about this motley crew

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Fri Dec 19, 2014 9:47 am  

Another story which highlights the complete bollax that surrounds party politics and separately the ridiculous funding methods of all political party's.

Edit out the flim-flam of the story and what you have is a law firm who two days ago have been accused of inventing claims for their own financial gain, a situation which can be summed up succinctly in the statement at the foot of the article (the truth in a Daily Mail story always appears at the end of a gobshite flame so that they can't be accused of making up the rest of it), the statement says "The Solicitor Regulation Authority is now fully investigating whether there have been possible breaches of professional standards by the legal firms involved."

And there you have it, that is the story.

IF the company(s) are guilty of breaching professional standards then there is regulation to punish them and IF their controlling authority find them guilty as charged then the Labour Party have to make a decision of what to do with the money donated to them, but only at that point, if the company(s) are found not guilty of the accusations then accepting money from them in donations is no worse than accepting money from any other source who's methods of earning that money may be seen as being offensive to some others.

Nicholas Soames fussing and blustering is just the example of party politics bollax, every party could turn over some stones and find nasty people hiding underneath them, the only surprise is that people are apparently surprised.

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:50 am  

rumpelstiltskin wrote: If you were giving career advice to a room full of eager young students, would you seriously advise them that the legal profession was a morally better choice than say, prostitution? We know you're trolling, but just to be clear, you would advise a 15 year old girl at school that it would be equally morally valid to leave at 16 to sell her body on the streets, as it would be to go to university, get a law degree and qualify as a solicitor? Ok. Not sure how long your job in careers would last, tbh. https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/events-training/excellence-awards/2013-winners/solicitor-of-the-year-private-practice/

rumpelstiltskin wrote: If you were giving career advice to a room full of eager young students, would you seriously advise them that the legal profession was a morally better choice than say, prostitution? We know you're trolling, but just to be clear, you would advise a 15 year old girl at school that it would be equally morally valid to leave at 16 to sell her body on the streets, as it would be to go to university, get a law degree and qualify as a solicitor? Ok. Not sure how long your job in careers would last, tbh. https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/events-training/excellence-awards/2013-winners/solicitor-of-the-year-private-practice/

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:11 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote: We know you're trolling, but just to be clear, you would advise a 15 year old girl at school that it would be equally morally valid to leave at 16 to sell her body on the streets, as it would be to go to university, get a law degree and qualify as a solicitor? Ok. Not sure how long your job in careers would last, tbh. https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/events-training/excellence-awards/2013-winners/solicitor-of-the-year-private-practice/ Would you advise a 15 year old to sell her body in other ways i.e. consider a career in modelling?

Ferocious Aardvark wrote: We know you're trolling, but just to be clear, you would advise a 15 year old girl at school that it would be equally morally valid to leave at 16 to sell her body on the streets, as it would be to go to university, get a law degree and qualify as a solicitor? Ok. Not sure how long your job in careers would last, tbh. https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/events-training/excellence-awards/2013-winners/solicitor-of-the-year-private-practice/ Would you advise a 15 year old to sell her body in other ways i.e. consider a career in modelling?

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:39 am  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Would you advise a 15 year old to sell her body in other ways i.e. consider a career in modelling?

Modelling is hardly "selling your body". It is selling the clothes you are modelling.

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Fri Dec 19, 2014 7:41 pm  

I have a problem with lawyers/solicitors who encourage and sometimes actively assist helping their clients to lie. That isn't a comment on the entire profession, like any industry they have their bad and their good.
I don't know what can be done about it, other than maybe a more aggressive, proactive regulatory/investigative body that actively tries to weed out the bad ones.

As for party funding, it appears to just be legalised corruption. I'd limit donations to £50 per person, the rest made up by public money. I'm sure some kind of reasonable system of allocating money to political parties based on their votes at both local and national level could be created. Combine that with banning MP's from receiving any income other than their parliamentary salaries (which I'd raise quite significantly) and whilst it'd increase the cost of parliament to the public it'd eliminate a lot of corruption.

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:47 pm  

A slightly different topic, but I wonder how long before a lot of the Savile claims are exposed as complete lies? It seems pretty much anyone can claim they were abused and now the fund is setup they will get paid out.

I once met him in a restaurant in Leeds. We had a chat. I might ring up the solicitors acting for the 'victims' and say he groped me. Could get a few thousand out of it.

It is blatantly apparent there are a lot of solicitors on the bandwagon of encouraging people to bring borderline vexatious claims. Which is one of the reasons the government decided to reform the employment tribunals and slash fees for personal injury claims.

On the other hand, I know a lot of very competent solicitors. Most practise criminal law and get paid peanuts for doing it.

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:30 am  

The Video Ref wrote:

A slightly different topic, but I wonder how long before a lot of the Savile claims are exposed as complete lies? It seems pretty much anyone can claim they were abused and now the fund is setup they will get paid out.

On what basis does "it seem" so? Unless you have some evidence, I'm assuming that making a false claim is likely to get you collar felt in the normal way.

The Video Ref wrote:

I once met him in a restaurant in Leeds. We had a chat. I might ring up the solicitors acting for the 'victims' and say he groped me. Could get a few thousand out of it.

Or not. What do you think a "grope" in a restaurant would be worth? It is obvious you've no idea on what basis a claim might be valued, or how that process would work.

The Video Ref wrote:

It is blatantly apparent there are a lot of solicitors on the bandwagon of encouraging people to bring borderline vexatious claims.

Not to me, it isn't. Why would they? Not only are such likely to lose, and very likely hit such lawyers hard in the pocket, they would risk getting struck off. Again, do you have a basis for this claim, - maybe even, god forbid, an "example" - or just a Daily Wail reader?

The Video Ref wrote:

Which is one of the reasons the government decided to reform the employment tribunals and slash fees for personal injury claims.

The reforms to employment rights were nothing more than a cynical windfall for the Tories big business chums. Tribunal claims are something like 80% down, simply because sacked people (who can now be sacked at a whim within 2 years) don't have any income with which to pay the fees. But maybe you can give examples of borderline vexatious claims that have won?

The Video Ref wrote:

On the other hand, I know a lot of very competent solicitors. Most practise criminal law and get paid peanuts for doing it.

Don't worry, the government is putting 80% of them out of work too.

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Sat Dec 20, 2014 8:49 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Don't worry, the government is putting 80% of them out of work too.

There is a constant flow of 18 year olds signing up to three year law degrees at most universities.

Most of them find it difficult to get their one month unpaid intern placements arranged during their final year let alone a "proper" job in a law firm after graduation, for most its just another degree that means they get a job in office admin at a paperclip company, or similar.

The ones who dream of having a desk in a large busy practice with their own clients and a best suit for court are in the main dreaming, your figure of 80% is probably on the low side.

Re: Lies, Lawyers, and a nice little earner. : Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:39 am  

Littlejohn makes an eloquent point regarding these chancers.

Littlejohn makes an eloquent point regarding these chancers.