Always learning, always improving

Posted by Justin on Mar 23, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, HIPs, lawyers, legal system, risk, training | 0 comments I spent all of today on a conveyancing CPD (continuous professional development) course in Tunbridge Wells.While most of the content was not new, it provided a forum for some interesting discussions with other solicitors about practices, procedures and attitudes to risk – and about “clients from hell”!It also left me with about a dozen possible improvements to make to paperwork...
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Top tips for 2010

Posted by Justin on Mar 18, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, lawyers, legal system, professionals | 0 comments In the Law Society Property Section magazine for this month, 11 members of the section’s executive committee gave their top tips on how to prosper in the new decadeAlmost all of them were very good, but almost all of them were steps, attitudes and procedures we at Nelsons Property Lawyers had adopted from Day 1 – we are looking for ways to imprive beyond these relatively basic client...
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Money laundering

Posted by Justin on Mar 18, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, lawyers, legal system, risk | 0 comments Though conveyancers have been at the sharp end of money laundering activity to date, it seems that litigators are now being targeted as wellUntil now, it was thought that litigation was a less fertile area for laundering the proceeds of crime than conveyancing was: fraudsters had been setting up spurious property transactions in order to launder money, while litigation was considered a less...
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April Fool giveaway

Posted by Justin on Mar 18, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, lawyers | 0 comments It’s my birthday in April, so I’m giving a 10% discount on all new legal work where I receive (and accept)instructions in April 2010 – you need to quote “promo code April Fool” when giving the instructions (on the authority form, in the case of new clients) in order to qualify, so don’t forget
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Referral fees – are they actively destructive?

Posted by Justin on Feb 20, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, cynicism, estate agents, HIPs, lawyers, legal system, service | 0 comments We are currently finding the firms that rely heavily on estate agent referrals are incredibly slow – it can take literally weeks to get a draft contract out of them, and on more than one occasion we have offered to draft the contract for them, based on the information in the Home Information PacksAssuming they are not being lazy or incredibly incompentent (though … – no,...
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"Before you go, could you just …?"

Posted by Justin on Feb 19, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, cynicism, lawyers | 1 comment I am away on holiday next week. Madeira, since you ask; yes, I hear it is quite pleasant, though I have not been beforeAnyway, I made the mistake of telling my clients, and all day I have taken calls along the lines of, “Oh, you remember that draft Will/shareholders’ agreement/ lease/whatever that you sent us six (or more weeks ago? Well, we haven’t actually looked at it but...
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