Having moved in March, I wrote to my local council tax office to have them send me a bill, explaining that I wished to set up a direct debit to spread the cost evenly over the year. I have only just received the bill today, despite several phone calls and letters to the local tax office. The upshot of this is that due to their inefficiency, I must now pay the whole bill over nine months, leaving...

IANAL On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 14:35:07 +0100, Binary Era wrote: I have been given the gift of a Leatherman Multitool. This beautifully-made device has a number of facilites: pliers, screwdrivers, scissors, saw, etc. I'm sure the group will be familiar with this sort of thing. It comes with a carrying case that clips to a

Binary Era wrote: I have been given the gift of a Leatherman Multitool. This beautifully-made device has a number of facilites: pliers, screwdrivers, scissors, saw, etc. I'm sure the group will be familiar with this sort of thing. It comes with a carrying case that clips to a trouser-blade. But one of the components of this Mutlitool is a knife-blade.

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 14:35:07 +0100, Binary Era wrote: I have been given the gift of a Leatherman Multitool. This beautifully-made device has a number of facilites: pliers, screwdrivers, scissors, saw, etc. I'm sure the group will be familiar with this sort of thing. It comes with a carrying case that clips to a trouser-blade. But one of the components of this Mutlitool is a ...

When confectionery and petrol companies offer a promotion prize, they invariably state in the literature "No purchase necessary", why? If no purchase is necessary, how do they stop people making multiple entries to the prize competition (say, several thousand) to greatly enhance their chances of winning? -- Alasdair Baxter, Nottingham, UK.Tel +44 115 9705100; Fax +44 115 9423263

I have an aquaintence who wants me to allow him to use my address as a "care of address" to register his motor caravan and driving licence at while he travels around the country for a year. Is it OK to do this? Will I be liable for his parking/speeding tickets if he gets any? It seems that the DVLA insist he registers somewhere even though he won't be there. Seems odd. Comments please?

From The Guardian 6 July 2004 Parents face dilemma after smacking vote Sarah Hall Political correspondent An unlikely alliance of lawyers, childcare professionals and politicians last night joined forces to condemn as unworkable plans to jail parents who administer anything stronger than a light smack to their children. The change to the children bill, passed by the House of Lords last night...

Sex Discrimination case I can report a third failure on the part of the Respondent to comply with the Interlocutory Order dated 02 June 2004. 1) The Respondent's List of Documents was not received within 28 days of the date of the Interlocutory Order. They had been sent to the wrong, totally unrelated, address. 2) The Respondent did not respond to my request for copies of some of

George Orwell wrote: To sum up, I was a total idiot. Seven years on, older and wiser, would any minor offences committed by an idiot teenager still be prosecutable? Do they ever time out? I think (and I am not a criminal lawyer) that the general rule is that for prosecutions that can only be begun by an "information" being laid before magistrates, there is a limit of 6 months, but for...

Hello all, I was rather shocked to receive a letter in the post this morning from a well known ISP demanding payment for an account which was closed at the beginning of 2003 (not 2004). Now bearing in mind this is well over a year ago, I do remember closing the account, but do not have proof. They have sent me no communication before now ( I haven't moved addresses or anything like that). One...

I was wondering if anyone on this forum would be able to help me. Two years after my company was taken into receivership I finally became bankrupt in August last year. In August my wife stated clearly that she would be in a position to purchase my share of the property. At that time the house was valued at around £300,000. The Trustee refused to accept our independent valuation (carried out on...

Can anybody point me toward specific UK case law or online information regarding the legal responsibility of Insurance Brokers for the financial security of the markets (Insurance Companies etc) they use and therefore offer to the public? I am a so-called 'expert' in Insurance and Reinsurance and obviously I have my own commercial eperience and opinions but finding anything meaningful on the...

Whilst supervising my learner-driver son's driving yesterday, we came up to some traffic lights which were apparently stuck at red. As we arrived, about 8 cars back from the lights, we could see people driving through the red light. Then somebody stopped and the queue sat for a while. Eventually, after about two minutes, people further back in the queue started sounding their horns...

I'd be very grateful if anyone here could give me any advice on the following copyright dilemma... From the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48) 63.—(1) It is not an infringement of copyright in an artistic work to copy it, or to issue copies to the public, for the purpose of advertising the sale of the work. So if dealer "X" is trying to sell an artistic work, and...

Can someone accused of a serious crime chose not to have a jury trial and plead not guilty?

I will just put down some background, before I get down the latest problems with are having. Last year we bought a car the same colour make as this woman across the road, she started causing trouble with us when we came home with the car, this continued for several months with her being abusive every time we went out the house, in the end I took legal advise and my solicitor sent her a letter...

A question on local authority planning law - any help greatly appreciated! I live in a converted barn, which I am in the process of renovating. It currently has wooden external windows and doors, which are in very poor condition, which I would like to replace with brown UPVC windows, which will be in keeping with the nature of the building (some people may have a different view on that, but...

An estate fairly close to my house has a major problem with large (50 plus) gangs of kids roving roung and causing havoc. As an example, they residents organised a meeting, and at least 2 different members had to leave the meeting to deal with damage caused to their property during the meeting. The police seem to be fairly uninterested in the problem - the most they do is return a few of the...

An aquaintence of mine has asked me to post this on their behalf. (No, really): I work in IT, and fix computers that have been used by kids with some care needs. On Monday a carer returned a computer to me complaining that whenever they turned it on porn images were displayed. Unfortunately this isn.t a rare scenario - although we use blocking software the carers themselves are notified of how...

An acquaintance and I were subject of a county court action and papers were sent to my friends house. This was 8 months ago. He talked to the plaintiff and they called off their action pending an internal investigation. If they continued we were intending to make a counterclaim. Nothing more was heard until recently when this acquaintance brought round a notice of judgment with my name on...