Alright you slackers, it’s time for some law. Mainly because I have had a bunch of browser windows open with ‘new’ judgments open, ready for me to write them up and I can’t tick them off my to do list until I do. I could just close the browser windows but that would be cheating.
Lucy Reed
What are we doing with our lives?
I’ve been cautious about posting anything recently. My head is awl of a muddle and I may say something I will later regret. But I’ve got itchy fingers and am sitting quietly at home with nobody to distract me, so…
I should be at work this week. In fact I should be in the middle…
I have run out of vases
Trigger warning: death.
My mum died last week. Her name was Suzanne (never Susan).
I realised as I studied her face after it happened that I have never seen a dead body before. Her top lip was taut over her teeth. She looked weirdly waxen. Her forehead was cool on my lips as I…
What my out of office really means…
The other day I put a polite but hopefully firm OOO on my emails, explaining that I am not taking on new work and will deal only with emails relating to existing commitments.
This morning I seriously contemplated rewording it to simply read: “For the love of god, STOP. EMAILING. ME!” I flirted with the…
Two more books, still working on that novel…
Hot on the heels of the second edition of Transparency in the Family Courts, released last week, I received these beauties in the post today. The Public Law Dictionary is a new addition to this family of dictionaries, and I am one of the authors. Other titles include Private Law, TLATA and Inheritance Act,…
Transparency in the Family Courts – Publicity and Privacy in Practice
I’m please to say that the Second Edition of our book Transparency in the Family Court – Publicity and Privacy in Practice is now available for pre-order from Bloomsbury Professional Press for £85. This time around it comes in a fetching shade of pond green.
As you may imagine, there has been quite a lot…
In defence of tit for tat
I’ve been blessed with some lovely cooperative and charming opponents recently. And few who have been grouchy, rude and irrational. I’m a firm believer that being that person doesn’t pay off: it isn’t an effective strategy that assists clients. It signals a loss of objectivity or a lack of confidence, it shuts down the opportunities…
The Beacon
The light over the front door flickers at The Beacon. There is a bit of damp creeping up the plaster and into the wiring. My dad would have fixed it, but he hasn’t been there for a year. There is a ‘sold’ sign at the top of the drive and my heart is breaking. The…
‘Please don’t confuse your ChatGPT search with my law degree’ AKA ‘The A.I. faked my homework, Sir’
Civil Lit Tweet’s Gordon Exall highlighted a cringeworthy judgment today that really demonstrates the dangers of AI in a legal context. More importantly it demonstrates the particular dangers for people who are not egally trained, and don’t know what they are looking for or how to verify results or spot hallucinations and bad points.
In…
Delay Repay
In the golden age of rail travel when I were a lad I didn’t need to worry about delay repay. A train delay was a rarity that could be borne with equanimity, even if one couldn’t easily spell it.
Now, it is a point of principle that on every delayed journey (which, let’s face it…