Legal Recruitment Blog

County Courts – A Danger to Society? This is probably a fairly inflammatory title to have for an article but I feel very strongly about this issue and the danger that county courts offer to a society in general if they continue to be run in their current state and decline further. You may have read in my blog in recent years of our company’s frustrations at dealing with the county courts. We have seen sheer incompetence, intransigence, arcane and antiquated procedures and staff who are either so demoralised they don’t care or simply can’t be bothered in any event. Our most recent run-in with the county courts has been in a case where a law firm owed us an amount less than £5,000 which put us well and truly within the Small Claims Track, which is where we are quite happy to be. Unfortunately the law firm we were suing had worked out that the courts are so incompetent that they could simply counter-claim against us for £50,000, not pay their issuing fee, fail to pay their allo

The Solicitors’ Regulation Authority have recommended the removal of the training contract minimum salary, something that appears to have been broadly welcomed by a large number of organisations which include a significant number of vested interests, such as LPC providers.  Is this a good thing? I don’t think so.  Probably a very controversial opinion, but I don’t think the legal profession as a whole can be trusted not to exploit potential trainee solicitors and take advantage of large numbers of desperate students and graduates who believe they need a training contract at all costs. Furthermore, what on earth is the point of permitting law firms to effectively take on large numbers of low paid workers who can then be permitted to carry on and qualify as solicitors? Where does this leave the status of a newly qualified solicitor? Already in debt to the tune of around £25,000, NQ salaries in non-commercial practices are almost certain to plummet. There are a good number of law f