Facebook Twitter Email Us

Sir Terry Farrell’s “Vision for Tenterden”

I attended Sir Terry Farrell’s illustrated talk on Friday 6 January 2012, as arranged by Tenterden & District Residents’ Association. Though of no real legal significance, I thought it worth a blog post, as a lot of interesting thoughts were presented. I was slightly wrong-footed at the outset: though originally entitled “A Vision for Tenterden”, the opening slide had the title...
read more

There’s old-fashioned good service – and there’s being out-of-date

Conveyancers are constantly encouraged these days to get with modern technology and social media: to hear some “experts” talk, a firm that does not have an online updating service so that its clients can check on progress, or that does not have a high profile on Twitter, is doomed to failure. Not true, I think: the recent Peppermint survey indicates that so-called old-fashioned values...
read more

We are lawyers, not magicians

Some clients think that telling their lawyer to do something is the same as it being done Sometimes, this is mere bullying. Perhaps the client has watched too many Hollywood films, and thinks shouting at subordinates is the way to motivate them – “I want [this impossible thing] done by close of business or you are fired!” In those cases, all I can say is, “Good...
read more

Disclaimers – one of my pet hates

By “disclaimers”, I am actually referring to a very small sub-set: those on fax messages and now – more and more – on emails, which get longer and longer, and are directed at those who receive the message in error. I was never really sure why the advent of the fax meant it was important to put this sort of disclaimer on messages. After all, snail mail gets miss-delivered,...
read more

NEIN! (No Excellence In aNything)

There are, it seems, a large number of (usually large) organisations that simply cannot be bothered – they have, and aspire to, no excellence in anything A prime candidate seems to be BT – reliable, trustworthy, customer-friendly, value for money? Not in my experience! Can you suggest other candidates for the NEIN list?
read more

The end of civilisation …

… as I know it What a depressing visit to Waitrose, Tenterden, this evening: not a single bottle-conditioned beer on the shelves. The stocks of Brakspear Triple had been steadily diminishing over the last few days, but I expected them to be topped up – wrong! Looking for an alternative, it was disappointing to see that neither Hopdaemon Skrimshander or Hog’s Back TEA is...
read more