About a year ago my daughter was sharing a flat with her partner and they jointly got into financial problems. Like many offspring she thought she knew best and they took out a joint personal loan with a finance company for £1500 over three years. To this was added some £500 for insurance and the whole amount charged at an apr of 38.9% !! The boyfriend went on his merry way some time back and...

What is the position of costs if you're on a low income and are using the fast track claims procedure? We haven't got or applied for legal aid, but do the same rules apply?

My son was asked to provide entertainment at a nightclub venue organised by an individual who hired the venue for the night. At then end of the night he was unable to pay for the act provided by my son My son paid the dancer and was informed he would get his money by the following Friday. Despite numerous attempts to secure the debt it has failed to be paid and there is always an excuse - bank...

Hello. I happen to know someone who is in a bit of a bind. After finishing his postgraduate studies, he hopes to get involved in government or commercial research in the defence sector. He just finds work in that area cutting edge and exciting. His doctorate thesis is certainly going to be relevant to such fields. Unfortunately, he has some alternative proclivities which may prove to be an...

In due course just how much compensation Neil Sharman and Kevin Fagan will receive ... -- regards or otherwise, Periander

I purchased an Alba DVD recorder from Argos about 3 weeks ago. The unit has been really problematic with problems ranging from the recorder stopping recording abruptly, to suddenly having no sound and also on one occasion it was clearly recording a programme yet when I stopped the recording there was nothing there. Its my own fault for buying cheap but that is besides the point, for £100 I...

I want to alert social services to the state one of my friends is living in. I think he really should be in hospital as it's plain (by common local consent) that he's unable to properly feed or clean himself. Any idea where I should try? I'll be looking on the web myself in a moment but I thought I'd ask here in case anyone's got experience of a situation like this. BB --

Hi guys. The retailer I bought the DVDs from seems unwilling to refund the faulty discs (see attached enotes). I am much more certain it is the discs at fault. I have tested writing to them at my work computer (Teac TS-H552U) and they failed as well. Incidentally, the retailer says they won't accept more than 10% of the discs being used. Anyone else think this is arbitrary and unfair?...

Any advice on this matter will be welcomed, I've not come across this problem before and am unsure as to what my rights are. February 2004, I moved in private rented property, dealt with by letting agents. There was some appearence of damp in the toilet area but as just recently decorated, it seemed minor. However, other issues have arisen since moving in and I had a visit from the environmental...

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of letting my spare room in my house to a student from the local uni. This would be under a guaranteed rent scheme where I'm paid a guaranteed rent paid by the uni who then recover the rent from the student. The local uni brochure I've received makes it sound wonderful, a guaranteed source of income and they will handle any problems that arise. I'm...

Stuart A. Bronstein wrote: "Random Observer" wrote: Of course, I understand how you may be correct, but surely if Alasdair described his problem factually then there can be no case for libel or defamation accusations? I guess that is one of the problems with UK laws on defamation. How does the moderator know if the description is correct? Can he

Hi i have been involved in a accident which has made me disabled to carry out my day to day job, so i have been thinking of joing the legal proffesion. A couple of things i need to ask though and would like a real world answers for. 1, im 39 yrs old, is this to old? 2, i have no degree 3, i can sit an access course for a year that will allow me into higher education your thoughts appreciated.

Hi. I bought some DVD-Rs from an online retailer and of the 4 DVDs I've tried burning so far, all 4 had write errors. A 100% failure rate (even for such a small trial) is not very encouraging. I am worried as I ordered 5 25-disc cakeboxes from them and I don't know if 10%, 25% or 100% of them are faulty. I have saved the error logs in 3 of the 4 cases. The burning software I use, Nero, only...

Ive just been released on bail to an address, i also have a 9pm to 6am curfew, im not tagged btw The problem is ive just found out that i will not be able to stay at that address until monday, so im having to stay at another address. Im just wondering if the police will ring at the original address to check i am there. In my court notes the section that says "you must present yourself at the door...

Ex has applied without any prior negotiation for an order to remove my kids from the UK to live overseas. At the same time, ex has, on solicitor's advice, agreed to mediation. We have no history of disputes over custody or access. Mediation is, of course, intended to make an application to court unnecessary. I'm reluctant to pay for mediation (no legal aid - and I'm not at all wealthy!!)...

Can anyone link me to a site which explains reporting restrictions for UK law in easy to understand terms? I am especially interested in restrictions as they apply to cases where the defendant or victim is a young person. I am grateful for any help.

I received my second bill from my mobile phone network saying that they have charged me 10% of my first bill for using a credit card instead of direct debit. There was no prior notice, however, that a fee would be incurred for doing this. I just checked the terms and conditions provided provided by the independent online mobile phone vendor which I saved in April. The network may have changed...

How does one prove one is single?? A friend's stepdaughter has got herself involved with an Albanian who has turned out to be an illegal immigrant. He'd been living and working in the UK for years, then got stopped for speeding and found out. He's being returned to Albania and is currently being held in Cambridgeshire. He's vowed to return legally.

Hi people, hope you can help. A friend of my Mrs is having some grief from her ex husband and is = thinking of getting an injunction to stop him approaching her. That's = easily obtained but the problem is, there are possibly times when he = would need to be in her vicinity in work. They work in professions that = work in tandem. Can a judge make an order that also allows the ex husband to go...

I always understood (but am clearly behind the times) that if two people aged over 16 engaged in consensual sexual activity, no crime was committed. Yet I read in the Daily Telegraph that a young female schoolteacher who had consensual sex with a sixteen year old male pupil stands to be sent down for her behaviour. After all, if anything had gone wrong, it would have been the teacher, not...