Jeopardised...

Lost has perhaps indeed lost all respect for himself as he failed to write a good essay for his referee and it was also so shit that it is beneath his referee to even glance at it. H e will most likely shred it, and put it in his solicitor's cage, for his humble caged solicitors to urinate on, as that it what it is worth.

Eurgh, if only the essay question wasn't a shitter.. here is hoping that everyone else in the class is as thick as shit to.

Solicitors

**Edit** Just hate the tired feeling of going in at 9 and coming out at 5! So tired! How do normal people function? Let alone how will I function as Barrister working 14 hours a day? !


Suffice to say that I HATE my work experience with the solicitors so far.
If I make it through the week without calling in sick then that will be great.

The main reason for my hatred is that in the past two days no one has offered to buy me lunch!!
Disgrace!

Criminal Law Masters?

Does anyone know of any good criminal law masters?

Not sure if I am looking for theory/substantative part either. I did criminology last year and I'm not sure if it was just the way it was taught, but it was highly boring/my teacher made me want to pluck my eyelashes out.

Help Please?

Last week of term!

Last week of term and only 3 tutorials to prepare for, one moot and two essays.
I can see that this will be a productive week or perhaps only so on the mooting front as I am determined to win!

I am not at all daunted by mooting in front of one of my favourite teachers who happens to be an advocacy trainer at one of the Inn's of court.. no no no, I shall persevere and perspire much like last time.
"Mr Lost you should restrain yourself from touching your face with your hands"
"Yes your Lordship I am much obliged, it's just that my face is pissing with sweat and clouding my glasses" The moot this time is on murder of a baby, who was removed from life support, all Re A and Bland stuff I imagine (I am still waiting for Smith and Hogan to become available from the Library no other textbook will do!)

I'm then off for my three weeks of GLORIOUS Yuletide festivities. One week being spent at a Band 3: Solicitors firm the other two trying to CLEANSE myself of the dirty solicitors that I spent my company with and the other two weeks will be spent trying to catch up on the whole of my first term, eating lots and passing out in pubs. I'm not entirely sure which activity will take prime importance but I do see a distinct possibility of one of them being more enjoyable than the other.

I am slightly excited about Christmas, only really in terms of the great BEAST of a feast that is Christmas Dinner, I don't care much about presents I am always to poor to give anyone any, and for the past two years I have wanted nothing but a helping hand in reducing my overdraft!

30 to 1.

Watching the Barristers Episode 4 has made me realise that cunts do exist.

Take 2 Dr Johnson’s Buildings for example. After the Head of Chambers says "Oh we can take on about two tenants" and then chambers goes on to take four. Then they all get informed that they have tenancy. Oh tenancy, that's nice bit of security now they can just get on with working 14 hours a day and sucking solicitors asshole's for work.

However the "agreement" is subject to ratification? Is it? It seems that some very poor tenants decided that they would pick on Kakoly. She was summoned again to a 30 against 1 interview. We are informed that a "few" members of chambers grilled her, and were "impressed" with her advocacy.

Now I wonder why the BEEB wasn't allowed to film this?

I would rather cut off my own hand than stay in a chambers where you know that certain people don't want you there.

Kakoly performed extremly well in my opinion, not only dealing with her first crown court appearance agaisnt someone very senior than herself, but also dealing with being reinterviewed for tenancy, was polite about it all and didn't really show how upset she was. Good for her! I do however think she should change chambers.

Deluded

On a sad note I have recently been finding myself wondering if I have got what it takes to be a barrister. Just the thought of becoming a barrister at the moment is becoming increasingly stressful. What with an increasing amount of debt, lack of decent grades and a frivolous appreciation of money combined with the hyper competitive nature of the bar, the lack of pupillages available and in particular criminal work being scarce, I am seriously thinking of giving up on the barrister idea. I don't think I really have what it takes and perhaps a serious think now will later mean that I am not one of those deluded who never get a pupillage.

Pupillage Interviews - Advice #1

Some advice from a barrister lecturer.

- Do not say "urm" in an interview. They will be checking your fluidity of speech and perhaps even counting how many times you say "um", "ah" or "er" This apparently is just for first round interviews to weed out people...

Exercise:
Get your friend to ask you a general question or like poor old Anna on the barristers got asked "Sum up your life in two minutes, focusing on the high points?" (WTF) Have your reply and see how many times you say UM or Ah.

This could be complete trite, however barrister lecturer says I need to do it. Also look at poor Anna's performance, getting slapped in the face for putting on a slightly different voice, how fucking trivial, but if you put on a different voice and they reject you, there is a possibility of rejection for saying "Um"


Oh and Anna to give consent is normally measured by looking to see if they have Gillick competence ;) Children under 16 don't have gillick competence, 16 yr olds have quasi-competence but cannot refuse live saving treatment.. oh I've learnt something.

The Barristers Episode Two

If Iqbal got a pupillage then there is chance for us all.

Wine

Lost was drinking wine last night, and doesn't know how he got home.
If you know how he got home please tell him.

Regards

Lost

I won!

Ok so not really a BIG achievement being that there were only 3 of us that attended the moot, and the fourth person never actually signed up and it was all a mistake that she was competing.

I am however releaved that my 20 hours of mooting preparation is over and that I can continue to the next round. I am slightly peeved though that some people can get away with doing a couple hours of work and wing it!!

The general feedback was that I should know the case at hand inside out, the problem being that when I was asked a question about the facts I did not have the problem question at my disposal because they moot master asked for a copy before I went into Moot! So slightly peeved about that, but hey what can I do. My ability to respond was quite good as was my style. Feedback also included that I should keep my hands still, not rest my chin on my hand or touch my face, however I was SO hot that I had to wipe my very sweaty forehead.

So all in all a good moot, much better than last year probably because the judge was very nice, didn't ask for a summary of the facts of the case, nor really had any problem with my submissions.

I've been parterned for the next round with the opponent who also got through, though we are all judged individually, so lets see hope it goes.. watch this space!!

Huzzzah!

P.s also not appreciating having been awake since 7am and now staying at Uni til 8:30 because I have to interview a client for LAC. *zombie*

Mooting (Again)

I have never quite understood why Mooting is the most horrendous, obscure and horrific competition that one can ever enter oneself into. Of course there are those jolly good try hards that love to do all the research and love presenting their case to the artificial court of appeal that it most likely chaired by someone who has taught you law and in my case probably has a grudge against me that I didn't turn up for their seminar.

Now for those of you who care to be reminded, I have done mooting in the past and in the first year I was reasonably good at it, though never quite progressed to those moots(though my friends did) where barristers were brought in as acting judges, and they decided to throw carefully prepared bundles across the table and tell the mooters involved that they were shit.

Then came the second year and I was stuck with proprietary estoppel... that can be read about somewhere else on this blog and the experience left me with an urge to SLAP the BVC student that wasn't so nicely judging my moot. "Oh I've mooted internationally" well you may have mooted internationally but at least I'm not a jobsworth and have my humanity still intact!. Excuse me dear readers.. last year's mooting was a painful experience and I didn't even progress past the first round. The bells of failure perhaps rung to early on my mooting career.

So whilst I am stuck in the mooting for retards, all my 'learned' friends are dashing around the country doing something wonderful called EXTERNAL mooting and are pally bum chums in the law department.. eurgh can you smell the jealousy?

Whilst my other law pallies are to scared to enter mooting, most of whom have done it once and have definitely decided that it is not for them due to various reasons; though probably most likey (a) the extreme pressue (b) pulling you hair out the night before and not sleeping (c) walking into the moot to discover that your partner has dropped out (twice that's happened to me) (d) having the judge tell you that you are shit and asking you questions that you don't understand.

This year however should be slightly better, as I appear to be one of the few third years participating in this years "why do I do this I feel the need to self harm" competition. The first problem question in this tournament is on the ghastly "invitations to treat" such and such has put an advertisement in the local paper wanting to sell chocolate and then the poor sod of a client that has me to represent him wanted to buy the chocolate but she retracted the ad and refuses to contract with him. Lovely jubbley. I am at LEAST prepared somewhat this time, as I have been diligent in my research and at least have an IDEA of what I am going to say.

If I however get that most learned twat of a judge from last year, I think I shall just walk out in protest... or maybe refer to him as "my lady"...

Lost does Burlesque

Well not me personally, I was dragged rather quite unwillingly to go see a burlesque competition in East London tonight as my former flat mate and buddy from back home had designed one of the costumes. There was lots of boobies with nipple tassels, and suggestive spanking, which you would think would arouse any man.

I thought the evening would be filled with lots of men in Parker jackets, with seedy looks on their faces, but surprise surprise there were actually more women than men and all of them quite young!

Needless to say that my former flat mate and most talented costume designer was backing the right horse as the girl wearing her costume won! Hurrah!

Not something I intend to do again out of choice, but at least it was more enjoyable than an essay on Hart's internal/external view for Jurisprudence due Monday.

How to be unprofessional tip # 1

Following Bar Boy's tips for advocacy, I might also suggest how to be unprofessional.

So tip #1
Be woken up be a solicitor from a good firm offering you work experience, you try and compose yourself however they ask you if they have woken you up, you inform them that you have just woken up indeed and it is reading week so its "all good", to which they reply "you better do some reading then"

"It's all good" what was I thinking!! I hope they saw the bright side... :S

Not a good time to be a criminal barrister (a supplement)

I've been doing some various research on the bar, seeming as that is what I want to do and I could even *shock horror* bring it up an interview, rather than just regurgitating Simon Myerson's ten reasons why I want to be a barrister, which of course I do intend to do, if not albeit my own tweaked versions.

So here is some further research about what difficulties lay in our bleak future.

Recent reports that the bar will become a two tier profession; those doing work based on legal aid are likely to get f' all whilst the commercial fat cats will have more money. The criminal bar's future definitely does look bleak.

Also at this years bar conference, barristers are furious over the inadequacy of solicitor's performances in court, who have little or no relevant experience. See here

Lord Carter's report on Legal Aid and the reform (imagine putting someone in charge of reforming legal aid when they have NO experience in the system and as he admitted he had no experience of the sytem before he started work on it) are likely to have a heavy impact on the legal aid system, as already mentioned in the previous post solicitors are more likely to take on more junior work in house. Establishing a fixed advocacy fee also looks very likely. We already know of what the Legal Services Commission wants to do to the bar (personally I think eradicate it or at least try and cut some costs which will mostly be in the criminal bar) earlier this year accusing the bar to be breaking competition laws.

The legal services commission is not very well looked upon especially in my experience of criminal barristers who refer to people who have signed onto the latest VHCC as "scabs" the equivalent to a traitor, much like those people who went to work mining during the strikes of the 70's and 80's. I'm not entirely sure if this is because they do not want fixed fees, or do not in general like the LSC.

What can be said is that the criminal bar will definitely shrink, if not all other areas of the bar, and good people will go far, and the lesser ones will go and work for the CPS. Which currently I think may be better than going to chambers, at least if they do all their own work in house it means that I will never have to worry about having no work.

I'm not sure why everyone wants to cut down the legal aid budget, from what I know the legal aid budget would fund the NHS for two weeks, so hardly that expensive, a cut in costs will ultimately either mean a leaner profession or one that no longer attracts the brighest.


Further Reading
Is the Bar becoming a two tier profession - Frances Gibb - Times Law
How healthy is the Bar? - Frances Gibb - Times LawToo many solicitors are no good in court, say barristers - Frances Gibb - Times Law
Young Legal Aid Lawyers - try and check out the videos they are quite good, you can see how the profession is being squees, also look for the very angry woman in red, she makes some very good points.

Not a good time to be a criminal barrister.

We are in recession, let's all face it, not as if pupillage wasn't hard enough to get, it will now become inevitably impossible. The Bar has gone from Highly Competitive to Hyper Competitive. For those of us who wish to become criminal barristers we may think that things will be easier, recession normally means high crime rates, so lots of work coming in or not as the case may be.

During the last recession in 1992 commercial practise dried up, leaving the non-criminal chambers with little or no work, so they started to branch out into areas of Law they had never done before, such as Family and Crime. Thus the amount of work, especially the amount of work that is done by junior barristers fell. Now if you were chambers would you really look to seek to new untrained people into your little family, if inevitably they will either not have any work to do or will be fighting for the tiniest scrap of work left.

Though there may now be structures in place and of course if a barrister is a specialist in a certain area their amount of work is unlikely to be affected too drastically. If however commercial chambers start to pick up an interest in other areas of law and eat into criminal work then this will significantly affect the budding wannabe criminal barrister, as they will most likely take away very junior work i.e. magistrates appearances, and lesser offences in the Crown Court.

Now if we couple the idea that other barristers whom shockingly didn't want to do criminal law because they wanted to make a lot of money, now want to do criminal law because they have no money with the idea of solicitor advocates (or as Geeklawyer refers to them solicitor inadequates) then the problem is further exposed.

Solicitor advocates are the bane of a barrister. Why? They again eat up work done by very junior barristers. Logically solicitor advocates are a good thing for at least a solicitor. If you have a certain amount of money allocated to a case then why not keep all of the money in house? Why instruct barristers to conduct work for you when you have an advocate within your own organisation?

Some may think that barristers who are highly trained in advocacy, will always out do the solicitor who does not necessarily have the experience of appearing before a tribunal of fact, this won't be the case of those of us just starting out, a solicitor advocate will most likely have similar abilities and skill to our own.

Before we can even think of practising as a barrister we have to look at the availability of pupillages. There is a 1 in 4 (or 5) chance of getting a pupillage, with around 450 pupillages and 3,700 applicants (See Simon Myerson QC on "The Chance of Success"). The Bar is a competitive profession so naturally it is selective as to who enters it.

As mentioned before it has gone from being highly competitive to hyper competitive, a comment on Mr Myerson's blog said that all barristers possess two qualities; high intelligence and self delusion and cheekily I would like to add a third - the ability to drink. We would have to be delusional to want to apply to a very selective profession, that can regularly work 80 hours a week, that takes up weekends and restrict social lives, for what gain? Time to really assess why we want to be barristers, and whether we have the right characteristics.

So we have two great boundaries (1) if we get a pupillage (2) if there will be any work left.

Lets hope the recession is going to be a short one, however for those of us graduating now, or have just finished the BVC the prospects look suitably bleak, unless of course you are one of those lucky ones to have a pupillage already lined up in that case you are unlikely to read my blog.

BVC Scholarship

Update: I have secured a reference from MrHRCB, who said that he will just make it up, lovely man giving me a reference after I missed his lecture then turned up 20 mins late to when I was supposed to meet him because I couldn't stop a printer from printing out 70 copies of my CV out of the 3200 it wanted to print. Wtf? Mental Note: make sure your alarm is plugged in and you didn't drunkingly pull it out to charge your phone. Also I'm lining up some marshalling, trying to get some outdoor clerking, applying to a few criminal solictor firms, volunteering at the met's criminal justice unit, doing LAC, and mooting (on contract -f'ing yuck) So will be considerably busier than I have ever been in the whole of my three years of doing absolutely f'all. :)

Crikey things have flown past me recently, I've been so busy doing nothing!!
So currently I am going to apply for a BVC Scholarship from middle temple.
A few problems may have arisen such as:

1. I've only just really discovered about this in the past week and the deadline is 7th November. (not really an issue if its all about form filling)
2. I have no idea of whom to ask for a reference, the guidelines for writing a reference are intellectual ability, motivation towards the bar, potential as an advocate, personal qualities.
3. Now the problem with (2) is that I have no tutors past or previous that can get me a sound reference due to the fact that none of them know me very well. I've had three different academic tutors in three years so I'm not particularly close to any of them, except perhaps my 2nd year tutor, however how does he know that I possess certain qualities to go to the bar? Also I'm not the sort of person who dither dathers, sucking up to tutors in order to get a good reference, I do the work, turn up to the seminars occasionally and do alright in the exam. But oh no, now I have discovered that I need to be a complete suck up!
   
4. However I am currently thinking that the references do not have to reach Middle Temple until the first few weeks of January, so if I am lucky, I can persuade Mr Highly Respected Criminal Barrister (now known as MrHRCB) to write me a beautiful reference, as I am going to write him an amazing essay over reading week, and perhaps ask to see him and see if he can give me any guidance to become a criminal barrister. There's that and also I did a mini-pupillage with someone that he did pupillage with, and she seemed to like me so it could all go well.
5. Is there a point of asking someone you did a mini-pupillage with to write you a reference? Mini-pupil masters are more likely to know about your ability aren't they then those who teach you, because to be honest, unless I was to get a reference from woman who organises the moots, (which I only did particularly well in, in the first year) then no one is going to know of my practical skills to make it to the bar.
6. I could ask my LAC manager, however as I am yet to have undertaken a case, there is no point!
7. What is the point of asking for references when I haven't done particularly anything of merit and no-one knows me on a personal level!! How frustrating!!!
8. Finally - I'm not sure if I actually have to try and enrol on the BVC before I get a scholarship or is it just enough that I intend to do the BVC?
   

Apart from that I am going to try and get into outdoor clerking, it seems pretty flexible and I have every Friday off, and can pick to do either a morning/afternoon shift, though how I can juggle doing my 3rd year, mooting and the LAC with an outdoor clerking job seems slightly impractical.
Links for outdoor clerking are
The Court Clerks
Gio Legal Services

Though Bar or Bust has mentioned that solicitors firms are cutting down on outdoor clerking, what with the credit crunch and all! Balls!

Juris.. what?

Subsequent failure to turn up to jurisprudence seminars, essentially means that I have not done any work at all, this term for jurisprudence and as I cannot not turn up tomorrow for the seminar this means that one shall have to condense 5 weeks of reading into one night.. sounds like fun or not... I don't really understand jurisprudence, a lot of waffley words, big ideas, not a lot of action.

I went to the first training session of my uni's LAC, it was about interview skills, how to ask questions etc and find things out, you would have thought it was quite simple, but one guy who was my practice partner was being really difficult, and wasn't really telling me anything, so I had to fight for scraps of information, so it was much more difficult than I had imagined. I'm quite glad I got this place on the LAC, we get trained in interviewing, legal research, drafting technique etc so I'm hoping that this will be transferable skills for when I head to the bar.

Charon QC notes in one of his latest posts that law schools should be more realistic, as there are too many people chasing too many pupillages, also noted by Simon Myerson. So far all I hear is "if you are determined you will succeed" well I suppose that's a motto that anyone can use. I like the idea of being a criminal barrister et all, however I'm an ok student 2:1s and 2:2s, my student record must be abysmal due to lack of attendance, I definitely haven't one any academic prizes, I don't hold a position in any society, am fairly crap at mooting, so is life at the bar for me?

Or perhaps I have just enough time left to get myself together?

I don't understand

I have lost the ability to study or to understand people's stupid handouts.
What I hate about academics, apart from their ability to understand anything is the fact that they always have to list endless amount of articles and forget that us "mere" students will barely have time to read the core text book on the subject, whilst juggling training for a LAC and trying to prepare for mooting.

Do they really expect me to look at all of this? Garhhhhhhh

3rd Year Begins

Ah so the third year of uni begins, I guess this means that I will have to work this year to actually get a 2:1, no longer can I stay out til 5am in the morning, drinking and stumbling my way to the bus stop, onto the bus, and then procede to slag off every possible poor sod that has decided to be on the bus with me.

I have currently chosen my final options, as I have studied all the core 8 subjects horror! By studying them I mean.. I picked a few topics in revision and I was lucky enough that they came up in the exams and I did alright with what I had looked with. So my options are Company Law, Law of Evidence and Law of Medical Ethics. I switched from Labour Law to Law of evidence, because the man taking the seminar is none other than someone whom is highly respected at the criminal bar, and therefore a reference from him would surely get me a pupillage perhaps at his chambers where he practices, but seeming as I was slightly drunker then realised on that particular mini-pupillage they may have put me in the alcoholics rejection pile.

So this is the year when I am supposed to be studying, as I was supposed to have done all my mini-pupillages last year.. oops. Somewhere along the line in between the advice given to me mostly likely by other fellow bloggers, I missed doing mini-pupillages and only have one under my (currently over expanding) belt, so more shall have to be done. That and joining "societies" has to be done I feel, might look good on my CV.

Perhaps one particularly good thing I could put on my CV is that I now currently advise people on how to avoid fare evasion what do you think? Since I have installed Sitemeter, I can now tell that the only people that come to my blog are either fare dodging criminals (like msyelf) or other fellow bloggers. To mention this or not? I think I shall!! I have been doing pro bono work! My guide must have been looked at least 50 odd times, so that could have been 40 odd people I have helped, taking that and the account of the various emails I receive on the subject I could have helped about 60 people!!! Probably more than any person in an LAC would have done!! Yes I feel smug :)

I have definitely decided to go to the bar, however decisions have to be made as to whether I should LLM it or not, which BVC provider, what inn to choose (most likely middle). I have even done some extra reading (what is this?) and have picked up David Pannick's "Advocacy" which was fun in the beginning but as Mr Myerson QC has mentioned the short text has actually turned into a text book, with a legal authority for each point he makes..

I also had offered to help out with a law society, however this back fired as when I originally offered to help out it was in the form of maybe writing an article, when I attended the meeting that lasted for a good 2 hours, that perhaps writing an article wasn't enough, and I had to think hard about politics and infrastructure of a national student body.. unfortunately (or fortunately) I couldn't actually make the next meeting due to a family booze up at the sea side that I had forgotten about, since then I have had no communication with said group, perhaps they think of me as unreliable?

On another note a farewell to Law Minx who is either running around naked around Temple or has found herself a juicy pupillage. I wish you the best in what you do, and hope that you will return to the legal blogsphere! Is it me or are student blogs no longer in the mode?

Hopefully all of you starting the BVC are not too busy, as to recommend which bar school I should apply to ehy ?

Dodging Fare Evasion - A Guide

Dodging Fare Evasion – A guide.

This post only relates to Fare Evasion on Buses that are operated by TFL.
It does not deal with Fare Evasion on the Tube, though I suppose you can use similar arguments, but you should be careful to make that distinction for yourselves.

Quite a few of you readers have been emailing me and asking me how I got out of being prosecuted by TFL for fare evasion. Some of you have been nice, and others have just taken my information and run, without a thank you (I hope you get done propa). Though I find it incredibly boring to give people the same advice all the time, and I’m pretty sure I keep missing stuff out, so here’s a guide if you help you getting out of being prosecuted via settling out of court.

Disclaimer: I accept no responsibility for any reliance that you make on this information, it should not be considered as independent legal advice, if you do intend to rely on this information by reading this you promise not to be a dumb ass, not to copy and paste points that I put across, you are free to distribute this information as you wish as long as I am credited.

Update 03 April 2009 - If you get a court summons just ring them up and ask to settle out of court. They will normally let you and you will have to pay around £102.


PLEASE READ THE POST IN FULL AND THE COMMENTS BEFORE EMAILING ME.

Update February 5th 2009 - there is another fanastic website that deals with this, I have yet to verify the information on it, but I consider that the information is still reliable. In addition to reading this guide you should also read the information on the link below.

I have just recently become aware as of February 6th 2009 of this wonderful website
http://busrights.blogspot.com/

1. You’ve been caught
So you have been caught, either it was a mistake or you were deliberating doing it, it really makes no difference. Make sure that you check whatever you sign at the time, this will be used in evidence against you, so make sure that you agree with what TFL inspector, or if you did not know then you may say that you were under duress to sign it.

If the ticket inspector has taken down your details it will be all put in a computer, and I gather that the decision to prosecute is made by the prosecution managers. If you have given a real name and address you are likely to receive a letter, saying that you were caught at X time and X date, and do you have anything to say about the matter.

You should immediately reply, with a grovelling letter of apology, it will also be important to make sure that any correspondence with TFL is printed off or photocopied, and kept in a safe place or folder, you will need this if you need to go to court.

2. The Court Summons
Think that they have forgotten about it, haven’t heard about them in a couple of months? TFL are extremely busy prosecuting people, probably with the amount of people that don’t pay on the buses. As fare evasion is a summary offence a court summons can arrive any time (so I’m told) within 6 months of when the offence was committed. Any longer and I assume you can have the case chucked out of you as the time limit for bring forth proceedings has elapsed, or you could be unlucky enough to have the court summons arrive 4 days before the elapsed period.

2(a) Read

Though you will probably be in shock and perhaps thinking that your legal career is over it is important to read all the documents that you have in front of you, check all the statements provided by inspectors, look to see if they are signed or not, an unsigned statement may not be valid, after all how do we know that someone else has not made this information up? Look also at the statements look for discrepancies, the TFL inspector may have surmised what you have said, or might not have written down what you said at all. Note this down for later.

Also have a look at the Revenue Enforcement and Prosecutions Policy and highlight any sections that you feel are applicable to your case.


2(b) Do I have to respond immediately?http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.bold.gif
My advice is no, do not respond immediately to the court summons as you will be trying to settle out of court. I did not fill out the back of the form or send anything off. If you have already put in your plea it doesn’t matter you can change it.

If you have received a court summons ring up the TFL number provided on the summons and ask for whoever is in charge of your case and ask for their email, this will speed up communication time, as you will not have to put valuable letters within the remit of Royal Mail.

3. Drafting a response to the court summons

(a) Tone and Format
Assuming now that you want to settle out of court, have read through all the information on the court summons, have highlighted any discrepancies in the evidence against you, and checked that the statements have been signed so you can assure for their validity you can now start with your draft letter/email in the hope that you can settle this out of court.

You will need to sound (a) apologetic, do not rant, keep it simple and precise, and (b) it needs to be written in a formal manner, even if its in an email I recon it should look like this found HERE (click link) . Do not use the same adjectives over again, have an expansive vocabulary but do not get flowery.

Here is where you need to develop your written advocacy!! Whilst also being formal, apologetic all that jazz, you need to be persuasive, be persuasive in a suggestive way for example “It could be open to suggest that…” etc.

(B) What to include.
Hopefully if you have read all the above points you will know what to include.
You may want to set it out like this (a) Apology (b) Revenue and Policy Guidelines that support you case (C) The Pace argument (explained later) (D) if the statements are signed or not.

(C) The Pace Argument

The pace argument relates to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. (You may wish to google this) now TFL inspectors are bound by this act and therefore must perform their duties in accordance with it. Depending on your circumstances you may not be even to use this argument, this must be considered very carefully, because if you use it and its not applicable to you then you will look like a dumbass. I suggest you do your own research on Pace.
Now what can you use PACE for. Basically PACE stipulates that any conversation or questions put to a suspect that are likely to produce an allged confession, must only be after you have been cautioned. A police caution in this circumstance being that which you may be familiar with on the bill "You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence." Also see this site HERE for more information.

So if you have been questioned and you have said anything that may be prejudical to your case you could suggest to TFL that it would be inadmissible in a court of law.
If it went to court, you can make an application under s.76 and s.78 of PACE 1984 to exclude such evidence being admitted.

4. The Waiting Game

So hopefully you will nervously await a reply from TFL as they decide your fate! This process can take up to a week. They will either (a) inform you that they are proceeding with the prosecution or (b) saying that they will drop it, if you pay prosecution costs and the fare evaded, an amount which could be between £100-£200. Once you have paid they will send you a confirmation that they have dropped the case and that you do not need to attend the court date.

5. What happens if they don’t drop the prosecution.

Now I never got this far, however I would try and keep communications open as possible with TFL, keep asking them to settle out of court.

If not you can ask to meet with the prosecutor and suggest that they charge you with a caution, if not then you could ask the magistrate to impose an absolute discharge (which is not a criminal conviction) given the prosecution’s hard stance. You could also show how eager you were to co-operate with TFL, and make sure that you have a copy of all the correspondence between yourself and TFL.

5(A) Should I get representation?

Not if you can settle it out of court, solicitors will charge £100 for an interview as fare evasion does not give rise to legal aid! There may however be people who will represent you bro pono.

Contact details are below.

Community Legal Services Direct
0845 345 4345


The Law Society on 020 7242 1222.

Bar Pro Bono Unit
0207 6119500.


6. How will this effect my future career in Law Etc

I have been told that this will probably not effect being called to the Bar. You MUST if asked declare any convictions declare them to your professional regulatory body, either to the Bar or Law Society. If you do not have a conviction then you do not need to mention it ;)

I think that they ask for any previous convictions, not withstanding whether or not they have been spent, so you must declare them. If you do not declare your conviction you risk the chance of being found out later and disbarred, or whatever the equivalent for a solicitor is.

There are two different views on whether or not this will effect your chances of pupillage/jobs, either (a) everyone has done it in London including Barrister’s themselves so it’s not very serious or (b) it’s an offence of dishonesty, “ I wouldn’t want to work with a thief” a mumbling twat would mutter, and with competition for these jobs being so high, its another reason to reject your application.

Now hopefully this has provided you with the answers that you want. If you still have questions you can contact me at lost London law student at googlemail dot com.

Good Luck!!

What can I do with these books?

I have books of law bursting out of my REAR. All these books that I have only really have read or have never read at all, and they are still all lieing about my room, my flat and all need storage?!?!

Fellow bloggers, please tell me what your storage solution was to the endless amount of books an LLB students seems to amass?

I wonder

how long it will be til my head explodes, so far my current interests are battling the housing association (see post below) , bookbinding, ikea, looking at desks, seeking out ornate mirrors, sourcing artwork/prints for my flat, thinking of starting another unrelated blog, will I or wont let my lesbian friend live in my spare room as apparently she is can get quite, noisy (need I say more) pulling freshers, arranging things in my wardrobe, should I do criminal law, what work experience do I need, should I start exercising, should I get a job, should I look at my law text books some of which I have never opened.


Yet none of these are actually really important. I fear that I have go to the grown up land and that the little Peter Pan inside me has died, under the lists of things that I have/want to do are being made at 4pm after I have woken up after having gone to bed a 4am and doing practically nothing those 12 hours, nothing of use anyway.

I waste too much time, I could have filled this summer with a job, or some more work experience however I have failed to have done so. So does it get any better once you are older? Do you get to do all the things you need to do or just you have a list of things a mile long that you eventually need to do? My old flatmate's dad used to have a monthly schedule of what he would do on his weekends off!

Please someone put me out of my misery (we'll argue that I called you a collaborator with the on the VHCC and I’m sure that will satisfy both provocation tests) if I end up like that, hopefully I will be earning so much in practice that I can afford people to do this for me? Perhaps I could even be sufficiently lucky to another £7.20 on the lottery again!!

Pretending to be a grown up is hard, why can't someone else do things for me, I will happily vacate my body and go to the barrister nirvana of pupillage (A minxvention) a truly spiritual place I hear after one goes through the soul destroying process of the BVC and OLPAS.

Lost v Housing Association.

I have just sent a rather big complaint letter to the housing association that is in charge of running the shit hole that I live in. Whilst I am a private tenant of a landlord who has acquired the lease of the maisonette (posh word for scag den) I have written to my housing association telling them that I am now completly fed up of their lack of ability to do anything in the positive to the building that I live in.

I have told them that I'm fed up of people pissingand shitting on the stairs to my building, my flat mate having to leave because she was sexually assaulted on the stairs, bikes being stolen from outside of the flat, having kids smoking weed on the stairs. I've had enough of it all. They get paid a service charge of £1,000 every year and for what?!?!

So therefore I have suggested that all of the above reasons are severe enough to warrant a security door to be installed, and therefore would stop the sexual assaults, people fly tipping and people pissing everywhere.

Also to my annoyance people keep living rubbish, by the rubbish shoot when they can put it down the fucking rubbish shoot! I shall be putting notes up and through people's doors!!!

Resit Results

UPDATE - I passed, well a 2:2 in EU, which isnt that bad seeming as that I thought it may have been another 39%!!! YAY:D

Resit results are out tomorrow, just EU that I had to resit, whilst doing reasonably well in the others. I really really really hope I have passed, but if I have failed it and have to take it again in May 2009 I shall be devasted!

I feel really sick and can't sleep, so have started organsing bills and any other piece of paper I can get my hands on!

I'll update with whether or not I've passed(I should bloody expect that I have passed!!) later on today! EeeK!

Keeping In Contact

What is the best way I wonder to keep in contact with Barristers whom you have met or had mini pupillages with?

It seems slightly erksome to me to email and just say "Hi! Remember me?!?"

Any suggestions?:S

Prosecution, Prosecution, Prosecution.

A rant written prior to TFL dropping their prosecution.

As with the age of the 90's when the amount of claimaints went up and the apparent "sue" culture became its own, it now appears that a prosecution culture has arisen. This culture being the antithesis of its predecessor, seems to be tackling people of all the spectrum regardless of the degree of what offence has occurred and treating them in the same way.

For example the woman with a pram who was prosecuted for getting to touch in, or the student whom got on the bus found out she didnt have enough money on her oyster card but was hawled away to the next stop where ticket inspectors were. Regardless of the reliability of any stories, there seems to be a very zero-tolerance Blairite policy of attacking anyone who commits an offence and not treating them different from one another, therefore the habitual offender is treated as the same as someone who is mistaken or has various mitigating circumstances.

Now what I see is a trend towards the classical criminal justice system, that of Bentham and Beccaria. This sort of disproportionate punishment seems to be more and more apparent with the introduction of strict liability offences, and the only thing left for magistrates/judges to do is to determine innocence or guilt, a system that is dependant on the criminal act rather than the individual offender. I am not a fan of this, obviously ;)

On the other hand one can look and hope towards a positivit criminal justice system we look at the individual offender and how they can be rehabilitated in society, less stringent on imposing maximum and minimum sentences, but more interested in the individual and the external factors that surround them. Therefore we do not need "targets" for sentencing criminals, nor need to impose a definite sentence for such a like.

Do I look like a LAC?

Two emails have appeared in my lostlaw google account, both asking me to get them out of TFL court summons. Do I look like a LAC? Perhaps I should start charging for responding to these letters, but then I begrudginly realise that some people also helped me and didn't charge for it.

I wonder if you google "will fare evasion fuck up my chances of becoming a barrister" then this blog comes up?

I will consider requests for help, but you must ply me with a good bottle of white wine that costs at least £5 from the offy, perhaps a nice gallo chardonnay.

Additionally I wonder if some Law students are stupid, I will not copy and paste you samples of my letter that got me out of my court summons! Here's a hint mention PACE ;)

Exam tomorrow

My only resit is tomorrow, and hopefully my last resit, preparation has not gone too well for it, with the whole TFL court summons taking up a lot of my time and also me losing my glasses.

All I need to do is pass, so lets all pray for me ya?

New glasses

Eurgh..

I thought I had picked really trendy glasses, that were geek chick however now I realise after actually having put lenses in them, that they are just geek, and possibly the ugliest glasses I have ever bought!!!!

Stuck with them now though!!! ah!!!!

Someone stole my glasses!

I was happily dancing in a drunken way in a place that I go to slightly often, only to have someone touch my face and have my glasses fly off into the abyss which was the dance floor.

I then ran about, asked a bouncer to try and find them but couldn't. Stayed til the end of the night beng emotional about losing my glasses, the bar manager wasn't of much use either.
Reported it to the bouncer outside, then got someones number who sore what happened.

Now....

I have found out from the guy who luckily gave me his number said that someone swiped the glasses from my face. So whilst I thought they just slapped me round the face or tried to punch me they had got my glasses. I just thought they had been knocked off, onto the dance floor.
The man who took my glasses, was later in a fight, and stopped by the police apparently, so hopefully they'll have his details.

I'm thinking of several things, why after my TFL victory and how good will I be when I'm prosecuting the cunt.

TFL..........

HAVE DROPPED THE PROSECUTION!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks you lot for the advice you gave!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Criminal Record - Does it Matter?

So does it matter?

UPDATE:
Bar Boy, has alerted me to the fact that Inner Temple will now no longer accept those who are convicted of fare evasion in any capacity, so don't get caught!


Solicitor said - "oh not really I have a few colleagues who have been in a similar situation"

Inner Temple says - if you have any previous criminal convictions your application to join us will have to put to a special body,

Other stuff on the internet says - a criminal conviction for something like fare evasion can damage your career, offers of recruitment can be withdrawn, all over a simple not paying for a bus fare.

Barristers and solictors are throughlly checked, and if I were to get a guilty conviction it would be spent after 5 years, however this would still show up after my "rehabiltation" period was over as I would have to disclose all previous convictions.

May be worrying about this a bit too much, then again may go jump off a bridge.

TFL - The Letter back

Currently trying to draft a letter back to TFL so that I can settle this mess out of court.
It appears that a conviction for faredodging whether or not one is innocent will effect any future jobs. Shit
Just sent the letter to my mama, for verification of it's goodness, however what I got was that it was a big rant, and that I sounded too much like a law student trying to do them over and if she were a prosecutor then she would just try and prosecute me.

Eurgh this sucks.

Also I will not qualify for legal aid, so any representation I will have to pay for!!!
Also they have included in evidence something which I would say was an alleged confession to the crime, and they didnt caution me, yet have used the evidence so I guess thats pretty inadmissable.

What an up hill struggle

Opportunity 2

Right well this is all balls up, none of the information I am getting or reading on the internet seems exactly clear.

It looks like TFL are very very very bad ass, in regarding the prosecution of cases, they do not bother to read apology letters nor do they care if it was a simple mistake of touching in or not and whether or not you had money on your oyster card at the time.

I have a few options - either plead guilty via post (apparently the best as there is no point of going to court for all the hassle) or go to court - wearing a nice suit and try to explain what happened - however the general reaction is that - it still wont wash.

Now the only problem I have is that is is not clear whether or not I will have a criminal record on a CRB check. Now as I want to become a barrister I'm guessing a criminal record is a no no. Now what I've been reading is that I will probably end up with a non recordable criminal offence, that will not show up on the NPC (national police computer) and then there is varying opinions of whether or not one should disclose it on an application for a job.

Also very interestingly is the idea of applying PACE into an arguement, I was NOT under caution when the evidence was taken, therefore the evidence should be inadmissable n'est pas? Yet what I said and what the ticket inspectors said are being used in a court of law.

I think I shall plead guilty by post and write a letter of mitigating circumstances, such as I am a student, I had money on my oyster card but forgot to touch in blah di blah. I just do not want to have to declare this as being convicted of a criminal offence when applying for pupillage *weeps*

Opportunity

Oh dear it appears after 6 months and a grovelling letter of apology that I have been summoned to appear in the magistrates court for failing to pay my bus fare. The evidence against me and I've seen it in written form basically incriminates me as "SORRY I DIDN'T DO IT" which could be interpreted as who knows?

So erm who wants to be my counsel? These forms are a bit shit aswell as I think its only on the 3rd page that says if you wish to have a solicitor blah di blah.

So should I seek a solicitor or just plead absolutely guilt.. Oh bollocks I have no money I do hope I qualify for legal aid.

Bugger bugger FUCK FUCK!


Just read - an application will be made for a £100 contribution to TFL.. so im guessing thats just the fine!

Rant: Perhaps I should take TFL for court for their FAULTY machines which incorrectly took money off my oyster card whhich meant I couldnt get the night bus home which also meant I had to spend £30 on a fucking taxi!!!

Option: I think I shall plea guilty by post!

Drink

I seem to have one vice in my life at the moment, that is the related problems of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Now I am wondering whether or not I should cut out alcohol completly from my life (bit of a stupid idea) or just do it in moderation.

Think I might just give it up for a while

Helpful Links

Here you will find some links that have been most helpful to me organised in various sections with a short description if you so care to visit. This is by no means a definitive list, but all the links that I currently have in my favourite. If you have any more to suggest that would be great, I personally hate trawling the net to find these things!

Also most of my stuff is veered towards criminal law, if anyone has any helpful suggestions for civil, negligence, chancery, admin etc all other links are welcome subject to scrutiny!

Barrister Links

Boost your work experience - lists activities you can do to boost your application for pupillage - also very handy if you are looking for things to do to put on your CV.

Barrister - Mini Pupillages - What they are and how to get them.

CV - No idea how or what to write on a CV for a mini pupillage or pupillage useful site gives an example.

Covering letter example - from same people as above giving you an example of a good covering letter.

Time Tabling - No idea of what you are supposed to be doing and you want to go to the bar? Heres a simple helpful guide from 1st year to applying to your BVC.

Voluntering

Admin for Bar Pro Bono Unit - Want to have a bit of admin work on your cv, maybe get to know a few barristers look at cases or something in the mean time? Try this. I tried it though they never got back to me!

Independent custody visiting association - the police hate you apparently much better to look into being an appropriate adult as you get to learn more about PACE, however this could also be an option if you are a fan of liberty and the upholding of values of criminal justice - we all start out as young liberals!

Pro Bono and volunteering - Probably the juiciest stuff here, however remember that most people will already be doing this stuff, so try out the less well known things that not everyone does to make you stand out!

National Centre for Domestic Violence - if you want some real experience in dealing with people who have suffered abuse who may one day be someone you are prosecuting for then check this out.

Witness volunteering - Want to help witnesses round courtrooms and also want to get to know the insides of courts pretty well?

Youth Offender Panel - with growing crime commmitted by younger and younger people you may want to check out your local youth offender panel, and get some experience in your local community

Oh no

Update
As I am now living by myself, I seem to spend a lot of time sleeping with no one to wake me up in the morning, drinking myself into a light trance (intoxication by a bottle of cheapy Gallo is currently my favourite past time.

Also shocking news that Peaches Geldof intends to study at my university. Perhaps following in the same steps as dear old Pete, however I am not really a fan of joint degrees, thinking that you should either be wholly or neither, cant be half committed to something.

I have also started to cook for myself, eating one square meal a day (I get at 3pm) so far chicken on a bed of sliced potatoes, chicken burgers and meatballs all from scratch! Gordon would be so proud of me! Watching the F Word and the entirety of channel 4's programmes is essential when living alone and your friends are either too poor to go out or are no longer living in London!!

New Blogs
Lets have a warm welcome to Uni Looney who also talks about getting drunk, and the effects of university life style (and the inability to have a back bone which you don't have until your 2nd year of uni) , see also discussions of gay baiting -also for the fans of you of scotts law, we know its different but hey the author is a student too look at Scotsman.

Rock n Law - Chris Haywood - possibly the best looking blogger to exist? Did a nice chat with Charon QC can be found here about to start the dreaded BVC.

Things I need to do

1. Read - all my current magazines mostly including dazed and confused, GQ, and the normal drabble. Then start on all my law books that I have never really paid attention too, in particular towards Tort , so when I go for any interview it won't make me look like a complete twat for getting a bare pass (medical illness aswell in the exam)
   
2. Do something with the layout of this blog, hey Andro i'll pay you???
3. Get up at 8am every day and go for a fun! My student belly is getting rather large, and I would like to pull some freshers in my 3rd year, which leads to my final point.
4. Get a first next year - according to my mates on my course, it will be your best four marks within a category that determine your degree grade, and also a huge amount of discretion on how your degree is decided. So what apparently I need is four firsts to get a first next year, and how many subjects do I have four left! I did OK this year in terms of getting 2:1s, without realling involving myself in the material and a lot of late night panicing, if I really got myself involved with the material I'm sure I can do a lot better.

Sorry also to all the bloggers that I have neglected by not commenting, I'll try and catch you up soon!

Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice

I'm obviously talking about that programme that was on our screens a couple of weeks ago.

Criminal Justice or so they called it, apparently written by an ex barrister so some of it is factually correct was probably a helpful if not dramatic insight to the criminal justice system. I'm not a criminal geek however my mini-pupillage was obviously well worth it as I was nodding vigiorously in some places agreeing with applications to excluse evidence under PACE, saying oh this is very real etc.

Also you really felt for a guy who was of good character and had no understanding of how they cirminal justice system works, being thrown in at the vast deep end, being a murder suspect, being told to do this and that by various senior people. Most notably the woman QC, wow what a bitch. As I have never seen a QC in action I have no idea how mean they can be, is this an accurate reflection? Perhaps we should ask Myerson QC. Whatever was quite accurate was how that it could all of a sudden be very serious then the judge would say "lunch?". No no no cannot be sitting past 1 o clock for it is lunch time!

I then found myself in a bit of a shitter, it was quite obvious that on the initial evidence that he did it. So if you were the prosecution and were slamming his face into the puddle of mud which would eventually become his prison cell, would you then later feel guilty if he were found out to be innocent? Personal ethics come in here, would I want to get someone off who is obviously guilty or would I want to prosecute someone who is innocent? You do your job to the best of your ability, however I'm not sure how you can remain detached unless you want to turn into that QC.

Results (Fuck off)

Warning: . Contains some strong language and lots of venting.


I am incredibly pissed off with one particular result. Seeming as I thought put the same effort into all the papers, and for some reason some fucking dick head can't do it so I'll teach it lecturer decided to give me one mark away from a pass, which means I have to resit the stupid ridiculous EU paper, that I actually and quite arrogantly don't believe that I didn't pass. All I can say is that the EU lecturers are wankers as are the external examiners, who according to my personal tutor would have had to think about my discretional pass really hard? I still think they got someonelse's papers.

In addition to my fucking disgust and self loathing, I can't retake my Tort paper, I just got over a pass, I don't understand how the exam board could be so fucking thick, the doctor wrote a note saying I shouldn't have been in the exam as I was too ill to attend, I couldn't breathe for fucks sake, yet I have no chance of resitting the paper. So what I should have done is not gone at all, and done it in August.

Some good news - Admin, Criminology and Equity were all 2:1s. So I only and luckily have to resit the bullshit paper that was EU. Really quite angry about it. I don't particularly want to resit it, and I have had to spend the whole day in the pub with people who all managed to do well, and for some reason incompetent me can't seem to pass the fucking EU paper.

Moreover to my unhappiness, my flat mate has four friends staying in my tiny maisonette, and they are hogging my fucking living room and the entire fucking downstairs which leaves me trapped in my room, as I don't feel comfortable around them, I don't want to sit down and have a chat to them, I just want them out of my f'ing house.

Today has not been the best of days.

1st Mini Pupillage - Criminal

Chambers forgot to send me a confidentiality agreement, so I have no idea of what it would entail so I'll keep it all to a bare minimum. Monday- Thursday spent time on a burgarly case with a really nice female barrister. Then on thursday I was invited for "drinks" to chambers. I was advised by friends to only have one drink, however I had a few more than that, as I was left to wander and talk to people by myself without mini pupil master to hold my hand so envitably got around talking to people and the clerks, went out for a fag etc, then talked to my barrister about the case we had just been working on. All seemed well. Left went home, went to bed. Only to wake up and wonder what if I had made a fool out of myself (even though I only had a few drinks the possibility of " relaxing" around other members of chambers, when you have been trying to be really professional all week and a bit uptight) so I wondered if I had made a tit out of myself! Don't think I did.. or hopefully no one would have noticed!!!

Friday - I spent dealing with probation cases, and a barrister telling me not to come to the bar and giving me a very long list of reasons as to why I shouldn't! Probation work wasn't that exciting, however the barrister seemed to have a lot of tales to tell.

Summary: It's all someting to put on my CV, and I've got some pointers as to what to do to make me look "different" when applying to OLPAS which apparently everyone should do at least before they start their BVC. My barrister from Monday - Thursday was soo nice! Really cared about her client, and apparently from what I heard from clerks back at chambers, this attitude brings in the money too! The way to really learn about law, is to get a job as an outdoor clerk, textbook law isn't really what it's about in practice!

Finished!

I have finally finished my exams! No more staying up the entire day before the exam nervously panicing, having to take pro plus, drink coke by the gallon! I'm an not entirely sure how I have done this year, infact I have no idea at all, ah well at least a suprise is waiting for me on June 23 when I get my results then! I'll probably be having nightmares over the next few weeks of walking into an exam room and complaining that I've finished my exams then waking up in a sweat!

The exams in general went ok, did all the major ones such as Admin, Eu, Equity, Tort and my optional subject the dreaded criminology! Extenuating circumstances for tort.. pretty much a shame it can't be transferred to all my exams though!


Work experience
So now I find myself trying to get some more work experience for a workexperience block. I have left it too late to get any more mini pupillages, and to be honest the people I am ringing round here a local barristers chambers down the road seem completly thick, well at least their receptionist did "Hi I am a really friendly law student from a decent univeristy, sorry I couldn't find out what area of law you practice because you aren't listed in Chambers&Partners so I am just ringing to see why you are so shit and do you have any work experience?"
"umm no". The reply received was equal enough to make sure that I wouldn't be trying there again.

I also rang a criminal soliticor whose receptionist stated that they had no work experience until I kept asking if she was sure, so I'm pretty sure she just diverted me to leave a voicemail to someone who won't ring me back. Ah balls!

Which Inn is in?
I have no idea which Inn to apply for student membership for... it appears that lots of students and bloggers seem to prefer middle temple. The information on the web is useless, and gives little difference between them apart from telling me which ones are more boozier than the others...

Doctor Says

Well first of all doctor didn't say anything because there wasn't a bloody doctor but only a f'ing nurse practionner who couldn't treat me and my deep painful overflowing black mucus cough at the walk in clinic.

So Nurse practionner gives me the number to Out of Hours emergency number, I ring up leave my contact details, an hour later a Dr rings me, tells me that my cough is probably just an irritation. I've told him I've had it a few times before, and that it can get quite bad, that I have an exam tomorrow, and its quite important that I get it seen and under control. Oh no the doctor said you'll be fine, just drink tea with lemon and honey. 5 teas later its 3 am, I can't sleep, still coughing, constantly for hours on end, having a hard time breathing. So I can't sleep at all so stay awake and do some work for my exam which is well needed, as I spent three hours trying to get seen to by a doctor.

So I went to the exam today at 10am, coughed all the way through, went to the loo about 5 times. The people sitting next to me probably wanted to kill me, and I'm probably on their hate list. Went to see head of subject (it just happened t0 be tort) she said see examination officer, I saw examination officer, she said see GP. I saw GP, GP said "i'm surprised you went into your exam" as she thought I was too ill to go in.

So thank you very much Walk in useless f'ing clinic, and not so very helpful over the phone doctor, I am now on antibiotics and inhaler for my chest infection. Dick.

Ohh Bother

Yes bother, why am I looking at work experience opportunities, such as being a witness helper, an independent police station visitor, an admin/paralegal, or even doing some work for the FRU(oh boy would they be up shit creek if I had to defend someone).

I think serial procrastination should probably be a criminal offence, just like having Boris as Mayor should be (I voted for Ken). Not withstanding the fact that I do in general hate bendy buses but they are the only decent way of getting round London at silly o clock in the morning and he wishes to scrap them!

So I have been investigating work experience opportunities, however some seem too onerous for the current time, and may have to wait for my potential gap year after I finish my degree to gain some more experience/live a little. Unfortunately I do not have a CV with a flowing list of relevant work experience(Minx knows shes seen it) however I do generally feel better about myself(what is blogging for?) that some people I know have NO legal work experience let alone an ACTUAL CV. I can be known to be lazy and demotivated, however these people in their 2nd year not actually having any legal work experience or not even contemplating a CV really does give me a bit of confidence that there are probably a lot of knobs that want to go to the bar.

I'm fairly (overly) set on going into criminal law, yes i know poor pay, the criminals in jail will be living a better life than me, so I a hoping that my mini-pupillage with a criminal chambers will help me. However I do wish to explore other areas of law, and had I worked harder this year and not generally covered an entire course in a week, I would have realised that whilst Admin law and Trusts are generally quite boring, when you know everything about it its actually quite enjoyable! Perhaps I should have applied this to the bane of my existence last year (contract law) Which for various reasons of my tutor being the devil incarnate I didn't quite enjoy.

I'm wondering about the potential of other work experience, and I know that chambers also like the fact that if you have volunteered or traveled that this also looks good on your application.
Hence why the BIG plan for this summer is to go interralling round Europe for a month or so!

First Exam - Admin

The first exam administrative law was well shit. Needless to say I had spent a week fannying about and had managed to cover three topics. Good. Then when it came to Sunday I thought better do another few topics. Good. Came to 10am on Monday and thought now I can start revising them. Bad. Came to the exam, lack of no sleep and ridiculous amounts of pro plus and coke meant that my penmanship wasn't terribly great. Also whilst I had done all the work, every piece of reading there was to do for my chosen topics, when it came to answering the questions I could only remember half of it. Problem.

I answered one question on amenability, easy, YL etc what different lawlords said, managed to go on about Baroness Hale for ever, and then summed up the majority as I couldn't remember what the individual law lords said. Then I answered a question on legitimate expectation, bad. Whilst my opening paragraph may have been "ok" the rest of it was just what I knew about legitimate expectation as I didn't really understand the question. It had "substantive" in it somewhere, and it threw me off.

What was annoying was that most of the people I knew had revised the essay topics that had been set for this term, yet none of them came up in the exam, our lecturer said that ADR and PDR were relatively new and we wouldn't have to focus on them too much. Yet they came up on the exam paper. Which brings me to another point, Lecturers lie for some reason they do, when asked last year a property lecturer said that "chattels and fixtures are unlikely to come up because they are too easy as you have just done an essay on them" and they came up.

Comments from first years also indicate that a certain contract law lecturer, who threw in a couple of wild cards in last years exam, has said that our year is getting hard papers, so that the first year can now look good, and they have been promised easier papers. 1 in 3 people fail the first year at my university, and most if not all fails were contract law last year.

So I was annoyed but I'm over it at least I know I have passed.

Legal action and questions.

Something happened last night to my flat mate that has started me to think about taking legal action against the freeholders of the block I live in. While the landlord has a lease on the property, he cannot be directly responsible for the issues of (i) adequate lighting, that isn't turned on til about 9pm and secondly the lack of security to the stairs of our building, as it does not have a security door and is open to anyone to walk up and down thus a the main problem.

I'm writing to the housing association directly, and I assume that they do have a duty of care to maintain the building and insure that it is of a reasonable standard that would make it safe for its tenants. I'm hoping that my choice of words and rhetoric will establish that I am not pussy footing around, however if they write back and say as they did on the phone "we'll get the caretaker to sort it out" I shan't be happy. My friend was assaulted and this wouldn't have happened if (1) the lights had been on, (they periodically dont work and come on at different times) (2) there was either CCTV on the stair case, or a security gate like other buildings that the housing association runs have.

I know a bit from tort about duty of care etc and actions for negligence, my friend is considering taking action because I suggested that there may be a duty of care that has been breached, and other comments from other people, I know this may be of a "sueing nature" but really something actually has to be done about it. So I'm wondering about the options of supporting my friend, even if it means carrying out the litigation myself!

Any points or comments would be most appreciated, my email is up on the left if it's too long to comment.

Yes!

I am overly excited I have just received the news that I have a mini-pupillage with a good criminal set in London! Really excited!

I'm now thinking about how good I'll look in a wig! (ok it's my first mini-pupillage and i've taken the news as if I had secured pupillage)

Woop!

Exam Stress and Band Review

Courtesy of the BBC I now know how to deal with exam stress! Eat lots of fruit, regular exercise la la la. Didn't mention that smoking a pack a day probably also causes more stress and a heavier reliance on nicotine, it is only CBBC Newsround so aimed at kids, and I generally tend to forget that you can't buy cigarettes if you aren't 18, so I assumed generally that people taking their SATS would already have picked up the habit. Newsround takes a very nice childlike view whilst child line seems to think that people will commit suicide through exam stress.. (ok maybe at Oxford)

Also (Law Actually avert your eyes now I mention.. facebook) if you are on facebook and you are at despair with the world then join the group "I've thought about dropping out of law school at least ten times today" It's really f'ing funny, and it shows that most if not all people are practically in the same boat as you. (Pics of Despair - it's always darkest just before it goes pitch black and Mistakes - it could be the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others are featured in their photo gallery)

Enough of exam boredom lets talk about music!
So here are my current fav tracks, if you are so inclined to listen to them.

Review of LLLS's top bands
Foals - good band you might of heard in Skins (yes Skins just generally pinch the best music, check out their myspace and play cassisus or balloons)
Scanners bit like a british version of the yeah yeah yeahs.. check out lowlife
Hercules and Love Affair good tunes, which nearly all feature my favourite singer of all time Antony Hegarty who is the front of Antony and The Johnsons (no good songs though on his myspace page first two albums are superb though, if you are into drinking a bottle of wine by yourself and having a pack of cigs)
The Rumble Strips - from the E4 Advert Check out Girls and Boys in Love.

Crystal Castles - for something completely different/electro/thrash check out Crimewave saw them live at Push@Astoria and they had a really good set.

and finally
The Strokes (not new but as as I am currently trying to beat their song reptilia on medium on guitar hero and my small pinky finger won't stretch to blue! Plus the solo is hard!

Here endeth the review.