Paralegal Experience

I am now 7 weeks into a new job as a paralegal with a commercial law firm. The weeks have flown by, and I have loved being able to get involved in a wide range of varied and interesting work. My work has been spread of a number of different areas of law; property, immigration, employment and company/commercial. This has enabled me to gain a broad overview to practicing law. Having not yet completed the LPC, I was a little worried that I might not understand significant areas of the law, or be unable to complete tasks as thoroughly as might have been expected. However, the solicitors have all been really welcoming and keen to help out when needed!

The experience has been invaluable in developing research skills, and providing me with the opportunity to draft advice to clients. The cases themselves have been varied, and no two cases are ever the same – something which first attracted me to a career in law. A lot of the work has been on an international scale, which has provided more challenging work with a larger number of issues. I have also had the opportunity to get involved with research and preparation for pro bono cases, assisting inmates on death row overseas, which has been interesting in a different respect.

The work has been intellectually challenging, which keeps you on your toes and requires high levels of concentration and commitment! Each day provides new work, and I look forward to challenging myself further every day and gaining new experiences.

It is still early days, but I am thoroughly enjoying myself and looking forward to further developing my skills!

Police Tactics Caused Controversy

I was spoilt for choice with topics to write about this week – so much going on!

I watched an interesting documentary on BBC about new controversial police tactics Nottingham Police are using to catch burglars. Nottingham had the highest figures in the UK for burglary, and the Police Force decided they needed to take drastic action.

They set up ‘capture houses’ or occasionally ‘capture rooms’. These were ordinary houses, or rooms within occupied houses, which had been set up with all the latest gadgets and technology to ‘capture’ the offenders. The rooms were set up as any normal room would be, with furniture and ornaments, and contained valuables which have proven to be high attractive to repeat offenders (laptops, mobile phones, ipads).

The rooms were then rigged with cameras to capture the offender in action, and ‘smart spray’ was triggered when the valuables were moved by the offender. The ‘smart spray’ contains chemicals which to stick to the offenders clothes and skin, and the particles in each can of smart spray are unique to each spray can produced. This enables the Police to pin point the exact location that any smart spray found on a potential offender came from, thus making the evidence indisputable.

Through this method, the Police were able to catch and successfully prosecute a large number of offenders, and drastically reduce the statistics for burglary in Nottingham.

What I found most shocking when watching the documentary was the argument raised by some people against using such ‘capture houses’. It was suggested that this method of catching criminals was a form of entrapment, and that the Police were being “unfair” by creating a ‘set up’ situation, causing people who “wouldn’t otherwise offend to be attracted to the properties”. If this method of catching criminals in the act was a form of entrapment, the Police would simply not be allowed to use it, and the Government would have intervened.

Entrapment would be if the Police were contacting offenders directly, and providing specific details of houses to break into, which was clearly not the case here. The offenders had free will, and quite clearly chose to enter the houses and take property that did not belong to them. Talk about “unfair”.

Having been a victim of burglary twice in the last couple of years, this is a topic that I feel very strongly about – I am all for the use of ‘capture houses’ and, given the positive results Nottingham Police have seen from the use of them, maybe other Police Forces should consider implementing them nationwide.

You can watch the documentary here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019gb3t/Burglar_in_the_House/

Victory for Wine Enthusiasts!

Wine fans were delighted last week to hear that the law has been amended to allow high quality wines to be sold by the “sip” (25ml measures).

The Campaign was led by Dawn Davies, head sommelier at Selfridges’, who was informed in 2007 that the selling of wines by the sip in Selfridges’ Wonder Bar was in breach of the 1988 Weights and Measures Order. She immediately started a campaign and attracted the support of wine connoisseurs across the Country, who helped to initiate a petition and lobby the Government to change the law.

It took five years before the legislation was amended, but the new regulations now permits pubs, restaurants and bars to sell wine in any measure below 75ml.

This allows expensive wines to be more accessible to people who otherwise may not have been able to try wines from such high quality and prestigious vineyards. The Wonder Bar, at Selfridges, is now able to sell wines by the sip starting from only £1. Dawn Davies stated that she intends to place more prestigious and high desired wines on the wine list to celebrate, perhaps even a Chateau Petrus from Bordeaux.

This is good news for wine enthusiasts, who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to try such exquisite and high-calibre wines, and will allow the wine industry to grow and develop further.

Strange and Obscure English Law

I wanted to share a few of my favourite strange and bizarre English laws:

-      -    Believe it or not, it is apparently illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.

-      -    Along the same lines, Members of Parliament are not allowed to don a suit of Armour in the Houses of Parliament.

-      -    A pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wishes, including in a Policeman’s helmet.

-      -    It is legal to murder a Scotsman if he is carrying a bow and arrow, within the walls of the city of York.

-      -    In London, all “Hackney Carriages” (more commonly known as taxis nowadays) must carry a bale of hay and a sack of oats, by law. (This was repealed in 1976 though)

-      -    It is illegal to hang a bed out a window.

-      -    It is an act of treason to place a stamp bearing the Queen’s head upside down.

-      -    Similarly, it is illegal to stand on a British coin displaying the Queen’s head face up.

-      -    Believe it or not, it is actually illegal for anyone in England to consume mince pies on the 25^th December.

I recently read a book detailing some of the Law’s strangest cases, which prompted me to find out more. They really are some of the most bizarre cases ever heard of…

-      -    All individuals familiar with English law will have heard of Donoghue v Stevenson, the famous case that established the duty of care in tort. However, many people are unaware that the case never actually made it to court for a damages claim, as poor Mr Stevenson died before the claim was brought, thus leading to an out-of-court settlement of a mere £200. Despite this, the case went on to open the floodgates for future claims.

-      -    In France this year, a French man was ordered to pay his wife 10,000 euros in damages for the lack of sex in their marriage. He was fined under article 215 of the French Civil Code, which states that married couples must agree to share a “communal life”. The Judge ruled that this implied sexual relations, and that as it was absent in this case, he must be found liable for his actions.

-       -   In contrast to this, an English case in the 1980’s found that a woman who was rationing her husband to sexual relations only once a week was acting reasonably and therefore no damages were to be awarded.

For more reading see:

Peter Seddon, Law’s Strangest Cases (2005)

http://www.thedailydust.co.uk/2008/10/27/10-bizarre-uk-court-cases/