Skeleton crews and coping with the holiday season

At this time of year as a manager of a team you have one major headache

Holidays - or as lawyers prefer to call it - annual leave

Now personally speaking I have two breaks every year one at Christmas for 10 days and one in early summer for two weeks. I dont as a rule take time during the year save for an odd day here and there. My reasons for taking such limited time off is simply that it is expected of me.

Ive had this routine for a while now and so have become accustomed to it. You cant complain if you reap other rewards generally and if the top brass dont holiday much - neither do the next tier down.

Now this little unwritten sub clause is not one that the junior staff need to adhere to. Its the one thing I envy them for. Leave will be used up at every opportunity

Right now were deep in the doo doo with barely 50% staff - despite this being a planned exercise its bloody difficult to keep everything ticking over.

You can guarantee the following during this difficult period:

- there will be a client complaint about service on an absentees file
- there will be a CMC on an absentee's file that lands annoyingly on the worst possible day
- the brass will ask awkward questions about an absentee's file you know there are problems with
- somewhat unhelpfully, other departments will offer little assistance and may relish the opportunity to give you a slap
- Morale for those left behind will be very low indeed.

How do you deal with this?

Simple - you get your skeleton crew pissed every Friday evening for the duration of the holiday slog. Young lawyers will always be happily rewarded with free beer and cheap curry.

Its a fact - Im telling you

Wet weather claims

Whilst this summer is truly the worst most people can remember for wet weather, there is a flip side to the deluge. This will really piss some people off but its not bad news for every one - certainly not for injury lawyers.

We have seen a rise in slipping accidents (in shops in particular) and road accidents. Usually you would expect these claims to peak around November-February when winter weather is at its worse. This years mild winter led to a quiet spell during this period but now we are inundated with extra claims that usually you just wouldnt expect.

In the last week alone weve had 6 new supermarket slippers (wet floors, no matting and no signage) 5 rear end shunts and 3 motorcycle accidents on wet surfaces.

There again, on a personal level, my summer so far has been a disaster.

My kids cant play out, all outdoor events including sprts day have been cancelled. Last week our village summer fayre was postponed and this weekend we were hoping for a daytrip to the seaside. Now because of the forecast we are off to the cinema instead.

Truly miserable.

I knew things would go pear shaped following the best Easter weather ever. It was too good to be true.

Why some personal injury clients suck!

Im going through a bad patch at the moment regarding my faith in clients. Im referring to personal injury victims who can be classified in two very different categories :-

Those that are GENUINE and those that are FAKE

Its stating the bleeding obvious to some but here is my classification of both types:

GENUINE clients
Will (usually) have injuries you can see, feel or identify without much debate
Will not be able to work (but I dont rule out those that have no choice but to work)
Will be desparate for treatment / physio / therapy
Will be grateful for almost everything you do for them
Will be anxious and apprehensive about the legal process
Will be "clingy" and sometimes overly so - high maintenance in other words
Will induce sympathy from most claim related people / experts they encounter
Will usually be left with long term problems or vulnerabilities

Will be grateful upon conclusion of the case and thank you warmly for your advice

Will give you a degree of job satisfaction

Will usually guarantee you a decent bill of costs

FAKE clients:

Will call you on the day of the accident to start their claim

Will ask you how much their claim is worth - almost immediately

Will never call you or ask for advice

Will always moan when you do speak

Will never return / sign key documents until pushed to do so

Will want to settle the case in the shortest time possible

Will never be happy with whatever settlement you get them - "my mate got more"

Will never EVER thank you

Guess what. In my line of work I come across roughly a 50/50 split in terms of the fakers and the genuine.

I think that most law firms make a packet off the back of people that are clearly winging it and playing the system - in the PI field this is definitely the case. Im not too fussed about the ethics of this but occasionally, just occasionally, it irks.

PAT testing - is your firm up to speed?

Portable Appliance Testing is not something I would like to bang on about on this blog but I have been charged with arranging the tests for our law firm - weve been a bit slow in embracing this legal requirement. A systematic PAT testing regime is an important part of general health & safety in the workplace

Its an odd situation because I say legal requirement but in fact PAT testing itself is not a legal requirement - its the need to take "precautions" to avoid electrical injury / death that makes the issue so important to ALL businesses. The need to test portable appliances can apply to any business, whether you are a small time mobile hairdresser, landlord, shop owner or a big business.

The following list represents some of the key legislation that applies (there is more out there)

The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989

Ive been asking a few other business contacts whether their firms are fully protected and tested annually. Surprisingly some medium - ish firms are not tested and do not have the labels or certificates required. Others test only every 2 or 3 years which considering the hammering taken by the average PC - simply isnt enough

Check for your own labels - if your equipment hasnt been tested recently - suggest it to your partner and gain either a slap or a brownie point.

Are there any insurer based people out there that blog?

There is an increasing number of blawgers appearing in our little world (that be the UK legal world) but isnt it odd that you dont see many insurer based blogs.

I raise this because in my game they are the opposition and generally I dont have a lot of time for people that I encounter in day to day combat. That said there are some excellent operators and knowledgeable people on the defendant side of the fence.

So where are they?
Dont Insurance personnel have access to the web?
Dont they have views?

Course they do - so where are the blogs?

If you know of any - let me know. I'll gladly put them on my blogroll and trade punches.

HIPs Shambles

Its now official - the introduction of Home Information Packs will be
delayed. Its hard to believe that the government have lost their bottle at the eleventh hour in such a pathetic way.

RICS have done the damage with a judicial review application thrown in with sublime timing 2 weeks before the launch date of 1st June.

Our senior conveyancing team have been mooting this prospect for weeks now but somehow you just felt the government would press on regardless. I feel for the law firms and other related businesses who have spent good money on advertising and training. The latter at least wont be a complete waste.

One thing you have to say though is that the government regardless of their majority in the house, do not get to call all the shots in this country. We should be thankful for that at least.