By popular demand

Dear readers…Ruthie is finding that a combination of her dayjob and her DIY projects are increasingly taking up her blogging time…and she is increasingly in demand for writing that she actually gets paid for. Rather than leave you all in suspense, I’ll let you know the bad news and the good news. The bad news; I fear that this blog may have to come to an end. The good news: Ruthie plans to resurrect herself in due course, phoenix like on a website with some quality articles. I simply no longer have the spare hours in a day to properly service a blog with quality submissions. I think a website will be easier.

I know there will be some disappointed readers. Those people who want to stay in personal contact with me can do so via facebook. I know that Dan will be upset…however Dan if you want to speed things along by getting one of your slaves or flunkies (sorry, assistant solicitors) to design me a suitable website, I will be most appreciative. I think when you see the new improved site you will approve.

Thank you for all your support.

Update: Following the outpouring of support for my efforts, I’m pleased to report that Ruthie has been permitted, with the agreement of her Firm to continue blogging with a blog attached to her firms (soon to be updated) website. Obviously it will have to be a bit more formal than this one, but the Ruthie magic should still be there. This will hopefully keep everyone including my firm, Dan, and blogwatchers happy. I’ll post a link when its up and running. x

Stop filesharing or we’ll smack your bottom

Ruthie was amused to hear on the radio this morning that Virgin Media have sent out some nasty letters to their customers who have allegedly been illegally downloading music and threatening to cut them off. Ruthie wonders when it has become the duty of service providers to enforce the law as opposed to say, the police, and wonders when defendants allegedly (note use of that word) engaged in criminal consipracies not only get thrown into jail, and have their assets confiscated, but have their phones cut off for using the telephone network in furtherance of a criminal enterprise.

Ruthie was also hugely amused to hear four students who had received letters being interviewed, and who were disgusted not to receive the letter but to be accused of downloading Amy Winehouse. (Who as Ruthie can testify having witnessed her performance at Glastonbury is truly in need of rehab.)

Amazingly enough, other broadband service providers are available, who Ruthie suspects are about to get a lot more customers.

When will record companies start to understand that they may have to go without bubbly at the next few shareholders meetings until they can devise some alternative means of extracting cash from the music loving public?

BT: be afraid be very afraid

The recent dearth of Ruthieposts has can be attributed to Ruthie’s house move, work, visting friends, recent sporting activities that take her away from her computer and absence of Broadband.

Ruthie, being (at least a second level) geek requries coffee and broadband to function, over and above say, food. Ruthie therefore ordered her Broadband from bt a supposedly reliable and well established company about a month ago. Nothing happened after a week so I rang back only to be told that they had not in fact placed my order and the the free router they had promised me I would now be required to pay for as the offer had now ended. Following a rant, they agreed to dispatch a free router. After a few days the router had not arrived therefore I rang back only to establish they they could not find my address. No-one had rung me on the day they had tried to deliver otherwise I could have corrected them. The router duly arrived a couple of days later. Ruthie plugs it in: nothing happens. Ruthie rings back to be told that her broadband has not been switched on an will take another five days. After five days..still nothing. Ruthie rings back to be told…that no broadband is available at her address because she lives in the middle of nowhere and there is not ADSL line.

Am now working on dial up and plotting dark revenge…

Update: Ruthie has now spoken with Talk Talk who assure me that they can provide me with broadband and in my package will throw in unlimited free calls to America and Canada (Dan and Mary will be pleased). Assuming this is true, BT are not only administratively incompetent, they don’t even know where their own service is available.

Update: Ruthie has now discovered having got in contact with a local activist that her exchange is one of 4 out of 3600 in the country that is not broadband enabled. However apparantly some local geek has got the situation sorted. Talk Talk are therefore wrong. Send your business to 4sgtelecom.com who have been the most useful and helpful to date.

Ruthie therefore hopes shortly to be pulling out from the cycle lane back onto the information superhighway. Good news for Dan who seems to suffer withdrawal symptoms when I don’t post.

Still here…

Just to reassure readers…Ruthie has not been abducted by aliens or admonished by the Bar Council. I have just moved house…my world is full of bags and boxes. Merely shopping and posting a letter is an ordeal as I have to first locate the shop and the postbox. No broadband (as yet).

Please bear with me..apparantly death, divorce and moving are the three most stressful events in life. I’m suprised that childbirth isn’t also in there..but no doubt the list was written by a man.

Thought crime

Maria Eagle, the Justice Minister has proposed that possessing drawings or computer generated images of the sexual abuse of children should be a crime, incurring a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment. Ruthie worries that the issue of child sexual abuse has been swept along on such a wave of hysteria, that people charged with the protection of children are no longer thinking rationally.

The present law prohibiting the possession of indecent photographs of children exists to prevent the explotation and humiliation of children by removing the marketplace for the photographs. Drawing a scene of child abuse causes no exploitation, and the viewing of such a drawing is highly unlikely to cause anyone not already pre-disposed to engage in the act of exploiting children. The situation applies equally to computer generated images providing that no genuine photographs of children are used.

Will this law apply to abuse victims drawing their experiences as therapy?

Rape is also a crime, but rape scenes are frequently displayed in art, as are scenes of theft, robbery and violence. Our erstwhile Justice Minister seems to take no issue with the portrayal of these crimes, or does she seek to suggest that child abuse is more henious than rape?

Until the government finds a way to insert electrodes into our brains from birth there exists no power to monitor our thoughts. Criminality only exists when those thoughts are translated into deeds to the detriment of others.

Litigation: it’s all about the fight

Ruthie notes with interest of late how many cases seem to be settling, the parties shaking hands and shuffling off to a happy compromise. It’s all very Carter/New Labour/ADR warm and cuddly. It’s also in terms of court proceedings quick and and cheap. Lawyers like it too, since they often rack up more fees and less stress by reading the papers and giving advice, than appearing in lengthy hearings.

It’s all well and good providing a happy compromise is there to be reached. Sometimes one party is in the right. Sometimes evidence that looks strong on paper isn’t quite so compelling under cross examination leading to a reasonable doubt. Sometimes witnesses just don’t turn up. And even if you do go down, sometimes the airing of the issues leads to facts coming out that suggest a lighter sentence/more favourable payment terms are appropriate.

This isn’t encouragement for vexatious litigants: make sure you have a point worth fighting for. But if you do, find a lawyer with the stomach to fight.

And I think Geeklawyer has something to tell us..

Blawg Review: the morning after the night before

So, time to drink a black coffee, yawn and stretch, and greet the day with that special warm feeling that can only come from an especially well received Blawg Review. Goodness, Ruthie hasn’t had this much attention since her ballgown blew up and over her head at a judicial dinner. The attention is even more gratifying since it is wholely undeserved..all credit should be due to my anonymous co-blogger who stepped into the breach. Ruthie has placated her with the gift of her frilliest dress, and the promise of of tea at the Ritz.

Blawg Review #160

Dear Diary,

Law Blog Review for the Week of May the 19th in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Eight

Well, here it is. For months now, readers have been deluging Mistress Ruthie and I with private messages telling us what they would like us to do for them (although only Mr Greeklawyer has said that he would like us to do it for him as a pair). And for months Mistress Ruthie has been diverting requests for favours, whilst I have been instructing Tucker to plant his large staff before such supplicants and tell them to beat it off before they ask for anything from me.

Yes, dear Diary, it is the legal blog review. I was asked to call it a blawg review but, as I said to dear Ed, “There is no call to ask one to spell it the way one says it – this is English after all”. Alas he failed to take the point: such a uncooperative soul. Although officially anonymous, I suspect him of being an American.

I shall deal firstly with those who feel that their efforts require self-submission, rather than assuming we have discovered them through their merits. As Mistress Ruthie knows, I am all in favour of self-submission.

• Someone called John Phillips, who I take to be no relation to Nick has self-submitted 4 articles. I think a reference to one is enough. John likes to sit on the fence and this article is as close as it gets to taking a position. I fear that if John bent over his arse would be full of splinters.
• A gentleman named Robert Coffield has self-submitted 3 articles. These are about health law in West Virginia and, inter alios, reveal that West Virginian Moms (whatever they may be) rank 38th for maternal health, out of 51 contenders, scoring 69%. I am confident that this is a topic of absorbing interest to all who, as I did, loved The Virginian. Put Judge Garth in charge and West Virginia would be number one in a twinkling.
• Chinalaw has written about sports shoes. Presumably all of them are made in China by illiterate teenge peasants paid peanuts to feed the materiality of the West. A great read.
• Mad Kane let us know that she writes amusing verse. Dear Diary, nothing will ever improve upon my own efforts, but Mad (who describes herself as a Recovering Lawyer – which I take to mean poor) is on the right track, and deserves a visit from a hack, who won’t give her the sack when she’s flat on her back.
• Scott Greenfield simply wrote to us and begged. Dear Diary, this is a good approach. Of more interest is Scott’s support for same sex marriage. A brave stance and a right one. And one oh so close to my heart. It seems to me that all human beings should be equally entitled to the same form of misery. Why should homosexuals be favoured? As one of my clients told me not long ago, “married life is like being banged up. But there are fewer screws.”
• Daniel A Schwartz has recommended his post about internal message boards. I read this, dear Diary, but I did not understand it. Tucker wants to know what A Schwartz is.

Now for those that this blog knows and loves:

• Greeklawyer has been following his customary path of empathy and understanding in dealing with the death of a barrister in a shoot-out with the police. To Americans this is an everday occurence, but it is still rare enough over here to make news.
• Norm is still blogging away about those dreadful machines. However, Mistress Ruthie insists that Norm gets an entry and thus it is that he penetrates even the sacred portals of my diary. Norm says, ‘Imagine being able to socialize with 55,000 bikers without having to leave the comfort of your home!’ Dear Diary, must I?
• Mark Bennett has had a go at categorising legal blogs. Dear Diary, he explores three divisions, known as prophetic, proselytizing and incestuous. In English terms this seems to correlate with Administrative Law, Human Rights Law and Criminal Law.
• Evan Brown has a post on the steps being taken against those engaged in internet bullying. I found this thoughtful and interesting. It links in well with what Mental Nurse has said about what is happening in Bridgend.
• Charon QC has a post about gazundering.This is not a practice in which this blog would ever indulge, being unethical and mean. It is available to the unscrupulous because of the credit crunch. It has also been Charon’s birthday. By my calculations, he is now 3,262 years old and has collected a state-pension so large that he can afford to drink Bodegas Palacio 1964 from now on.
• The credit crunch, of course, emanates from the States and has now come over here. So, too, has Dan Hull, who now calls his blog “What about Paris?” Dear Diary, in my view this is most ungallant. His blog should be called “What about Ruthie?” Mistress Ruthie may not be an heiress but she is also, Mr Greeklawyer’s dark hints to the contrary notwithstanding, much more discreet about what she does on camera. Still, Dan has been improving his knowledge of Merrie England by listening to Northumbrian folksongs. I recommend Cushy Butterfield, a song with a message for all matrimonial lawyers, especially dear old John Bolch who seems to have been suffering from a sense of ennui lately.
• Down amongst the students, LawMinx is awaiting the results of her applications to Barristers’ Chambers with trepidation but is offering an award to those who write the best rejection letter. Dear Diary, at heart they all say the same thing and they are laughing at one. Legal Lass has also applied to Chambers but, being distracted by her new lover, is not so nervous. Ruthie’s Law wishes them both bon chance and, should they fail, may consider taking one or both on as an intern.
• Big news in the UK has been the efforts of a particular local authority to avoid behaving fairly to a father in a unpleasant divorce. Jaqui G (sister, so I am told of the more famous Ali) has the story. Local Authorities and the way in which they fairly represent us all is also the theme over at Nearly Legal which deals with the case where the UK has just been told by the ECHR that you can only mislead people about signing away their tenancies if it is proportionate to do so: that’s all right then.
• Meanwhile, the Bystander encountered deconstructed language and did not much like it. For a number of years the bar students performed Christmas Revels which included a take-off of Bohemian Rhapsody and included the line, “He’s got a job he starts tomorrow, as a painter-decorator”.
• Our very own art expert continues to keep an eye on important trials involving solicitors and provide updates on the likely future for our favourite painting.
• Head of Legal is still on holiday, again. Dear Diary, the man writes a good blog and he says he used to advise Tony Blair but that is not how he affords so many holidays. He is currently in Las Vegas – I suspect a system.
• Whilst our Lord Chief Justice has been strutting down the catwalk, the legal community possibly fearing retribution, possibly simply bored by another posing lawyer story, has been silent. The issue has, bizarrely, been most discussed in a different forum altogether. There amongst the contributors is one Simon Myerson. If this is the same person as he of the blog, then it may explain a long period of silence.
• Our mates at Impact are still proving that it is possible to write legal posts which 99% of known lawyers do not understand. Well done.
• Finally, we offer a hat-tip to possibly the best resource on the UK legal web; Inner Temple’s Current Awareness blog. Dear Diary, it is not exactly conspicuous by its narrative structure, but if you want to impress your legal partners, your instructing solicitor, your oppo or a Judge it is compulsory reading. If you use it to try to impress your non-legal partner, then I am afraid that either you or they, and perhaps both of you, are a sad bastard.

So there it is dear Diary. Mistress Ruthie is, alas, engaged in writing her book which I believe to be on the subject of whether it is within the health and safety legislation to apply a lighted match to an oil platform when the said platform has first been doused in a mixture of petrol and specially dried wood chips. The answer is clearly being painstakingly researched. Personally I deprecate legal tomes, which is why I write only to you my dear Diary. As Bismark said, “The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep at night.”

I am now supposed to tell you that “Blawg Review has information about next week’s host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.” In deference to Mr Ed I have done so, but I urge you to lose the language of the hood and revert to the language of The Queen, may God bless her.

Ruthie’s Law hosts the Blawg Review

Ruthie has been granted the honour by the mysterious and sexy Ed. of hosting the next Blawg Review on the 19th May 2008. What’s the blawg review and how can Ruthie’s loyal readers participate, I hear you cry? Well

“Blawg Review is the blog carnival for everyone interested in law. A peer-reviewed blog carnival, the host of each Blawg Review decides which of the sumissions are suitable for inclusion in the presentation. And the host is encouraged to source another dozen or so interesting posts to fit with any special theme of that issue of Blawg Review. The host’s personal selections usually include several that reflect the character and subject interests of the host blawg, recognizing that the regular readership of the blog should find some of the usual content, and new readers of the blog via Blawg Review ought to get some sense of the unique perspective and subject specialties of the host.”

In summary the blawg review is a window shop of the best selection of blawging as submitted by readers and vetted by the host.

Reader participation is invited and encouraged. Please send your submissions and recommendations for inclusion – it needs to be by Sunday evening. Here are the details of the blawg review, here is the portal for submissions.

Change the world by engaging in random acts of kindness

Ruthie was attending a dinner of the Great and the Good on Friday, having been invited to improve the average quality of the disco dancing. Ruthie, to compensate for her lack of diplomatic skills and comprehensive education, has learnt at such functions, simply to be nice to everyone and use both knife and fork.

Being a tightarse however she elected to carry her ballgown (which would not look out of place on the Christmas edition of Strictly Come Dancing), suitcase and the day’s casepapers on the tube. Astonishingly she was assisted up and down escalators, provided with seats and generally pandered to by a number of total strangers, which left her stangely moved. So folks: improve the karma and engage in some random acts of kindness, both you and the recipient will feel a whole lot better.

Apologies for the lack of general attention at the moment. I am deaing with some heavy cases, writing a book and moving house.