Argh. Off to the Law Society in a minute to film a videocast (that’s a film to you plebs) about Litigants in Person, aimed at solicitors. Will be surrounded by the great and the good in the shape of Andrew Hopper QC and Mr Justice Ryder. I am not a fan of being filmed, especially when I am the greenest of the lot.
I will post a link to the video cast when available, and to the Law Society’s Practice Note on Litigants in Person when published.
I hope this contains advice on not trying to wind Litigants in Person up before they have to present themselves in from of a Judge Lucy and rewriting orders after the hearing before sending to the Judge.
@ Dadzarmy – Well my approach is to try and work constructively with litigants in person and I hope that comes across. I’m not sure what you are referring to with rewriting orders – this is actually something that litigants in person often get confused, thinking that the process of typing and order and circulating it for checking is an opportunity to have another go at arguing the point and getting the order they want. If you mean that lawyers are amending orders and surreptitiously sending them in for approval, that should not be happening. Whenever I send in an order I will only amend typos or obvious syntax errors, and if anything has the potential to be controversial I will flag that in the covering email which will go to all parties. If something has been forgotten and I add it in I will say so (eg sometimes people forget to make standard costs orders). Problems do arise where the gist of an order is agreed but not fully drafted. Litigants in person should always be given a handwritten copy of the order before they leave court so they can check the typed version for mistakes and any lawyer who is typing it should circulate it for approval if any changes have been made. In any event, the order is the courts – if an advocate has drafted something that is not what the court intended to order the court will amend it before it is sealed.
Someone did advise me from our community that you were an excellent barrister. I will respond in full when I get more info from him.
West Midlands Court produced a document “What the Family Courts expect from Parents” – http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Guidance/family_final.pdf – which is useful and very clear – any idea if a similar document is in the pipe line for cases were any party is unrepresented?
Paul – I’ve seen this before (although I think it’s been updated) and it’s really good. I suspect that this is exactly the kind of thing that Mr Justice Ryder will be considering expanding as part of his modernisation programme.
I hope the filming went well.
I sympathise with your feelings about being filmed – We just had new photos taken for our relaunched website and that was traumatic enough!
I wonder if the Practice Note will have any information on how to deal with rude, aggressive and obnoxious litigants too. It astounds me when Barristers try to speak to the LIP I am assisting and I end up having to pull the LIP away and give him a talking to.
I often find Solicitors to be patronising and difficult to speak to and usually deserve a talking to themselves.
Lucy, watch out for Dadzarmy’s community. You will end up being nominated for an Oscar if they think too highly of you.