New Legal Marketing Method?

While having your brand of beer tattoo’d on a model in a micro mini and prance round central London for a while may work for them. It not a “professional” image you may wish to convey while working in a firm.

What I mean by “micro mini” is creating “problem specific” sites that your firm or company (ABS is in now) are specialists in.

An example being my Lasting Power of Attorney site. It caters for individuals who are look for more information and we hope with a view of creating one if we persuade them

Now this form of online marketing is no way new or revolutionary it has been done by the more savvy firms for a while now. In my opinion though it is not done enough.

The main quality a client searches for (barring the arguments for cost) is expertise. Your main site can only hold so much information and without a weighty budget it is fairly difficult to get one site to hold all the information you need, get it to rank and get it generating revenue

Your “portfolio” of sites I therefore feel should comprise of something akin to below, Firm Branding, Personal Branding, Lead Generating:

1) www.nameoffirm.com

This holding information on who you are, the PEOPLE in the firm with a nice smiling face and contact details along with “expertise” areas. Add any company news / events / sponsorship and you have a strong corporate feel site to appease the partners / share holders.

The main aim of this site being to have a presence; this site is your “showcase” it should attempt to create a human connection with your potential clients, portray an expertise without being to over crowded. 

You are selling your staffs expertise so your STAFF should be viewable via profiles, recent cases (and if it can be done rss feeds / links to their personal sites/ twitter etc).

2) www.nameofstaff.com

I accept not all senior members will have time to write articles and update it. However linking a personal site with their a) twitter and b) linked in will start creating a “personal brand” for them.

This being vital as clients normally have contact with primarily one individual and it is THAT individual that will make or break the confidence of the client in your organisation. Having a platform for the person therefore will showcase their expertise, and if your given a card….how many times do you google that person to find out about them?

Having a personal site with their expertise showcased is an asset even if all it holds is a profile that links back to the firms site.

3) Specialty area (or location) sites

While branding your firms site and personal sites is beneficial for direct marketing purposes. Micro/Mini/Niche sites are the method which can have the best ROI for any search engine optimisation work conducted.

For example targeting “Speeding Fine UK” to a site dedicated to that area of law; will let you focus link building, content writing and subtle theme work around that area.

Googling that phrase will show you an example of what I mean, the top 10 are all focused on that keyword and produce content targeting and relating to the offence they are “experts” in.

For my Power of Attorney site having a brief look at it you can see I am (attempting) to keep it up to date with latest news in the area (portraying expertise), I have a call to action (the contact form) in as many places as possible and lastly covering the alternative documents that they may consider, giving them the option to choose dependent on their need.

The crux however has it been producing leads and are those leads becoming clients? The answer is yes, the site is getting leads and a extremely high percentage are becoming clients and so paying of all initial set-up and on-going costs for running it.

What do you think of the above strategy? Personal Branding and Niche Branding the way forward? or all in one firm site the preferred default?

p.s. if you wish to contribute to www.yourlastingpowerofattorney.co.uk, please contact me to discuss a possible arrangement. 

The Micro Mini – Marketing your expertise just changed | Arfan Bhatti

In an attempt to make it better I bugged a few marketing minds around me and they pointed me to “Ca$hvertising”. I couldn’t locate a copy of the hardback book locally but did find the following summary.

There truly are some great points below and I will be amending my copy with some hints from below.

What People Really Want

Quote:
“People buy because of emotion and justify with logic. Force an emotional by touching on a basic want or need.”

Life Force 8:

1) Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.
2) Enjoyment of food and beverages.
3) Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
4) Sexual companionship.
5) Confortable living conditions.
6) To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Jones.
7) Care and protection of loved ones.
8 ) Social approval.

9 Learned Human Wants:

1) To be informed.
2) Curiosity.
3) Cleanliness of body and surroundings.
4) Efficiency.
5) Convenience.
6) Dependability / quality.
7) Expression of beauty and style.
8 ) Economy / profit.
9) Bargains.

17 Foundational Principles of Consumer Psychology:

1) The Fear Factor – Selling the Scare. Fear sells. It drives them to spend money. Fear causes stress. Stress causes action. Tap existing fears.

Four Ingredient Recipe for Using Fear:
1. It scares the hell out of people.
2. It offers a specific recommendation for overcoming the fear-aroused threat.
3. The recommended action is percieved as effective for reducing the threat.
4. The message recipient believes that he or she can perform the recommended action.

(Fear can also paralyze. Use specific, believable recommendations. Use fears that are specific and widely recognized.)

2) Ego Morphing – Instant Identification. “By purchasing the ‘right stuff’ we enhance our own egos and rationalize away.” AKA. Retail therapy.

3) Transfer – Credibility by Osmosis. Symbols, images, or ideas. Cues. Institutions, celebrities, authorities. Experts i.e. “White lab coats.”

4) The Bandwagon Effect – Give Them Something To Jump On. “Consensus-Implies-Correctness” heuristic. People want to belong.

1. Aspirational group – to which you’d LIKE to belong.
2. Associative group – to which you SHARE ideals and values.
3. Dissociative group – to which you DO NOT WANT to belong.

5) The Means-End Chain – The Critical Core. “Don’t buy for what it does today – but for what it will do tomorrow!” Future objective.

6) The Transtheoretical Model – Persuasion Step by Step.

Stage 1: Pre-contemplation: ignorant of your product’s existence.
Stage 2: Contemplation: aware and thought about using it.
Stage 3: Preparation: thinking about buying from you, but needs more information about benefits.
Stage 4: Action: “Here’s my credit card.”
Stage 5: Maintenance: continue to buy again and again. part of their daily lives.

1. Create ads that address all five stages.
2. Create a series of ads that progress over a period of time from stage one to stage five.

7) The Innoculation Theory – Make Them Prefer You for Life. Give them arguments against competitors. “Our competitors will tell you…”

8 ) Belief Re-Ranking – Change Their Reality. Appeal to either emotions like fear, humor, or guilt – or factual evidence and examples.

9) The Elaboration Likelihood Model – Adjust Their Attitude. Cues feel good, but Central Processing makes them PREFER you.

Two Routes to Change:
1. Central Route – persuading using logic, reasoning, and deep thinking. AKA. creating Preference
2. Peripheral Route – persuading using the association of pleasant thoughts and positive images. AKA. Cues

Central Route Processing: pour on the facts, stats, evidence, testimonials, studies, reports, and case histories. Weave an argument.

Peripheral Route Processing: load your ads full of colorful, pleasant images, humourous or popular subject matter, or celebrities. Visual anchors.

10) The 6 Weapons of Influence – Shortcuts to Persuasion.

1. Comparison: The power of your peers. Bandwagon effect. Social proof. Need to belong. Everybody is doing it.
2. Liking: The Balance Theory. “I like you… take my money!” Attractive people have greater influence. Consider trustworthy and likable.
3. Authority: Cracking the code of credibility. Mental shortcut. Man in the “white lab coat”.
4. Reciprocation: What goes around comes around… profitably! Free samples and giving stuff away creates goodwill and obligation.
5. Commitment/consistency: The “Four Walls” technique. Box them in. Elicit small actions and “yes” responses that cultivate to a larger request.
6. Scarcity: Get ‘em while they last! One day sale, limited offer, one while supplies last, first come first served, etc.

11) Message Organization – Attaining Critical Clarity. Ads must be organized and well-structured. Confusing ads and creatives won’t sell anything.

12) Examples vs. Statistics – And the Winner is… Examples by far. Emotion is the key to sales. Testimonials and endorsements are more engaging.

13) Message Sideness – Dual Role Persuasion. Talk about both you and your competitors.

14) Repetition and Redundancy – The Familiarity Factor. People don’t start seeing your ad until you run it seven times.

15) Rhetorical Questions – Interesting, Aren’t They? “Aren’t you glad you used Dial?” “How do you spell relief?” “What would you do for a Klondike?”

16) Evidence – Quick! Sell Me The Facts! Evidence can be facts, figures, testimonials, endorsements, research, charts, videos. As long as it’s real.

17) Heuristics – Serving Billions of Lazy Brains Daily. “Length implies strength.” Long copy pages, lots of media, testimonials, etc. Long = good.

Ad Agency Secrets: 41 Proven Techniques:

1) The Psychology of Simplicity – Use words effectively. Write so people can understand.

1. Use Short, Simple Words. – No $10 words. 5th grade level preferred.
2. The Shorter Your Sentances, the Better – Express only one thought in a sentance. No more.
3. The Short, Short Paragraph Trick – Limit regular paragraphs to 4-5 short sentances. Less in some cases (1-2) for easy reading.
4. Pile on Personal Pronouns – I, you, me, he, she, him, they, them, etc. Gives human flavor.

Quote:
“Write to the chimpanzee brain. Simply. Directly.”
-Eugene Schwartz
Quote:
“Limit your opening paragraph to a maximum of eleven words.”
-David Ogilvy

2) Bombard Your Readers With Benefits – Benefits are what you get from attributes.

 

Quote:
“Consumers buy based on what the product will do for them, not on what ingredients it has.”
-Newspaper Association of America

3) Put Your Biggest Benefit In Your Headline – Always. Keep under 6-9 words. 12 Max. Best is 3 or less.

Quote:
“Unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.”
-David Ogilvy

Quote:
“Short headlines enjoy higher readership than long headlines. As headlines grow, readership shrinks.”
-Starch Research

4) Crank Up The Scarcity – Hard deadline: “Sale Ends August 21st”. Soft deadline: “Quantities limited.” “First 100 Buyers only!”

5) 22 Psychologically Potent Headline Starters:

Quote:
“There are four important qualities that a good headline may possess. They are: 1. Self-interest. 2. News. 3. Curiosity. 4. Quick, easy way.”
-John Caples

1. FREE: “Free Book Shows You How to Write Sneaky Advertising That…”
2. NEW: “Powerful New Seminar Teaches…”
3. AT LAST: “At Last.. A Bakery That Only Uses…”
4. THIS: “This New Invention Stops…”
5. ANNOUNCING: “Announcing The Hottest New Sandwich…”
6. WARNING!: “Warning! Some Dog Groomers Wrap a Noose…”
7. JUST RELEASED: “Just Released: Psychologist’s Study Reveals Little-Known…”
8. NOW: “Now You Can Stop Any Attacker”
9. HERE’S: “Here’s How A 95-Pound Granny..”
10. THESE: “These Three Very Italian Men Make a Pizza…”
11. WHICH OF: “Which of these Hot Bodies Would YOU Like to Show Off”
12. FINALLY: “Finally… A Self-Improvement Seminar..”
13. LOOK: “Look! Now You Can Buy Cotton Candy…”
14. PRESENTING: “Presenting the Easiest Way Ever to…”
15. INTRODUCING: “Introducing the Only Ice Stand in Philly…”
16. HOW: “How to Sing Like an American Idol in 90 Days”
17. AMAZING: “Amazing New DVD Lowers Your Blood Pressure…”
18. DO YOU: “Do You Know How to Stop a Wild Dog Attack”
19. WOULD YOU: “Would You Trade $5 For x”
20. CAN YOU: “Can You Be Sure Your Child Won’t…”
21. IF YOU: “If You Hate Cleaning Your Pool, …”
22. STARTING TODAY: “Starting Today You Can Dance 97% Better”

6) 12 Ways To Lure Your Readers Into Your Copy:

Quote:
Example Headline: “Just Released! Psychologist’s Study Reveals Little-Known Speaking Patterns That Immediately Put Rude Salespeople in Their Place.”

1. Continue the Thought In The Headline: “You know the rude salespeople we mean. The ones with the big mouths…”
2. Ask a Question: “How would you handle yourself in a situation like this?”
3. Quote a Respected Authority: “According to communication psychologist R. Butler Sinclair, there…”
4. Give ‘Em a Free Taste: “The next time you’re confronted by a pushy salesperson, do this: Wait until…”
5. Challenge Them to Prove it Works: “Here’s what we want you to do. Read pages 8 and 9 of this book – no more. Then go..”
6. Start with a Story of Skepticism: “When we first received the manuscript from the author, we were skeptical…”
7. Tell What Others are Saying (Bandwagon Effect): Testimonials: “Nobody hates obnoxious salespeople more than I do..”
8. Play Reporter: “Philadelphia, PA – A New York psychologist…”
9. Get Personal With You, You, You: “Have you ever been hassled… Do you hate when people… Would you like to know… ”
10. Tell a Dramatic Story: “According to communication psychologist R. Butler Sinclair, there’s no longer any need for anyone to feel intimidated.”
11. Give Super-Detailed Specs: “This amazing new book – a hefty 8.5×11-inch leather-bound, hardcover beauty, is jamed packed over 443 pages..”
12. Lure Them With a Very Short Sentance: “Don’t you hate it?” “It makes me sick.” “”

7) 360-Degrees of Attention-Getting Power – Use circle-shaped ads instead of common square/rectangular.

8 ) The Reverse-Type Pitfall – Don’t do it. Reverse-type is light words on dark background.

9) Crush Your Competition With Extreme Specificity – Be extremely specific and descriptive when describing your product/service.

10) The Famous Ogilvy Principle – Start body copy with a Drop Initial. Massive oversized letter. Always run pics with captions!

11) The Psychology of Typefaces – Sans-serif for online (Arial, Verdana) and Serif for print (Helvetica, Times, etc.)

12) Insist on the Pro-Design Difference – Use a real graphic designer. Period.

13) The Power of Questions – They captivate and cause “open loops” in people’s brains.

14) The “Granny Rule” of Direct Mail – Relate to your reader. Talk to them like a friend and make them like you.

15) The Psychology of “Social Proof” – People believe testimonials. Always use them!

16) The Guillotine Principle – Use pictures of heads and faces in ads. Preferably smiling and relevant to the offer.

17) PVAs – The Easy Way to Boost the Power of Your Copy – Powerful Visual Adjectives. “Rake in $2500 Cash Weekly!”

18) Directing Mental Movies -

1. Visual words (sight)
2. Auditory words (sound)
3. Kinesthetic words (feeling or emotions)
4. Olfactory words (smell)
5. Gustatory words (taste)

19) Battling Human Inertia – Get people to take ACTION! 1. Make it easy to act. 2. Ask for action.

20) Establish Your Unique Selling Proposition – Tell them the real reason why they should PREFER you! Be serious and descriptive!

Quote:
“Don’t try to be amusing. Spending money is a serious matter.”
-Claude Hopkins

21) Buy Your Own Island – Don’t pay for a full-page ad. Use a Half-Page Island, which is a centered half-page ad that takes up space.

22) Authority Positioning – Become an authority in your industry. Share all of your expertise in free reports and guest posts.

23) A Sales Letter in Survey’s Clothing – Ask questions about their relationship to your product. Thank you for participation is OFFER.

24) Power Your Ads With Pictures – Ads with 50% visuals = 30% recall rate. Ads with 75% visuals = 50% recall rate. Show the product + in use.

Seven Best Types of Photos:
1. Children and babies.
2. Mothers and babies.
3. Groups of adults.
4. Animals.
5. Sports scenes.
6. Celebrities.
7. Food

25) Grab ‘em With Grabbers – Use something like a dollar bill or shot of change to grab attention. Tailor to niche.

26) Long Copy vs. Short – Long copy consistently outsells short. 2-hour sales visit vs. 5-minute visit. Who closes more?

27) Offer Testing – Find out what they want and give it to them. If they don’t like your offer, change it!

28) Survey Power – What do people want? Ask them! Incentivize surveys. It all begins with research. Make it easy to reply.

29) Editorial Energizers – Make your ads look like News Editorials. “Camouflage”

Quote:
“It has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement, and the more it looks like an editorial, the more readers stop and read.”
-David Ogilvy

30) The Coupon Persuader – Add a broken “coupon style” border to graphic ads. People are conditioned. Use “Double Coupons!” Light yellow bg tint.

31) 7 Online Response Boosters -

1. Best Frequency for E-Mailing – 31-35% => 1/week – 18% => 2-3/week – 13% => 1/month
2. CTRs – What to Expect – Declining for email. 1% for poorly crafted to rented lists. 20%+ for highly appealing offers to house list.
3. HTML vs Text – 60% have the ability to see HTML. HTML gets 200% better response rate. Some people block HTML. Must split test.
4. Best Way to Get Emails Opened – (60%+ is excellent open-rate) – 1. Familiar Sender. 2. Subject line must have their name. 3. Targetted offer.
5. Ad Size and Readership – Leaderboards and Skyscrapers outperform regular banners. Large > small. DHTML > non-interactive.
6. Animation Click-Through Booster – Animated = 15% higher than non-animated. Movement catches attention.
7. Mystery Ads Score High Click-Throughs – but low conversions to sales. Poor targetting. Don’t confuse clicks for sales.

32) Multi-page Your Way to Success – (only applies to print)

33) Guarantees that Guarantee Higher Response – Use “Guarantees” generously. Buyers feel vulnerable. Use a long and strong guarantee.

34) The Psychology of Size – Bigger ads perform better.

35) The Psychology of Page and Section Positioning – Generally just doesn’t matter. Ad creative matters most.

 

Quote:
“A good ad will get noticed irrespective of its position within the newspaper.”
-Roper Starch Worldwide

36) The Fantastic Four – (only applies to print)

37) Consumer Color Preferences and How Color Affects Readership – 1. Blue. 2. Red. 3. Green. The older the bluer. Best combo: Blue-Yellow then Blue-Red

38) The Psychology of Pricing – Odd pricing conveys value ($77.95) Even pricing conveys quality ($1,000) Helps justify sale for “teeterers”.

39) The Psychology of Color – “Darker is heavier” Apparent weight is higher as you get darker. White, yellow, green are lightest.

40) Wrap Your Ads in White – Wrap your ads with lots of white space. It garners way more attention. Pro tip.

41) Give Yourself a “Cleverectomy” – In advertising, it’s not clever to be clever. Sell the benefits. No clever word jokes.

BOOST YOUR AD RESPONSE:

22 Response Superchargers:

1) Forget style – sell instead!
2) Scream “Free Information!”
3) Write short sentances and keep them reading.
4) Use short, simple words.
5) Write long copy.
6) Boil it down, cut out the fluff!
7) Stir up desire by piling on the benefits.
8 ) Show what you’re selling – action shots are best.
9) Get personal! Say: you, you, you.
10) Use selling subheads to break up long copy.
11) Put selling captions under your photos.
12) Write powerful visual adjectives to create mental movies.
13) Sell your product, not your competitor’s.
14) Don’t hold back, give them the full sell now!
15) Always include testimonials!
16) Make it ridiculously easy to act.
17) Include a response coupon to encourage action.
18) Set a deadline to break inertia. (Expires: December 1, 2009)
19) Offer a free gift for quick replies.
20) Say the words “Order Now!”
21) Offer free shipping.
22) Boost response 50% or more with a “Bill me” or credit option.

9 Ways to Convey Value:

1) Scream “Sale!”
2) Give them a coupon.
3) Diminish the price: “Less than a cup of coffee a day.”
4) Explain why the price is low. “Our boss ordered too many!”
5) Amortize it: “Just $1.25 a day”
6) Boost the value: Tell what it’s worth, not only what it costs.
7) Tell how much others have paid (and were happy to do so!)
8 ) Create a sense of scarcity with deadlines.
9) Employ psychological pricing.

13 Ways to Make Buying Easy:

1) Give your street, email, and Web address.
2) Give your phone number.
3) Provide street directions and parking advice.
4) Say “It’s Easy to Order…”
5) Accept phone orders.
6) Accept mail orders.
7) Accept online orders.
8 ) Accept fax orders.
9) Accept credit cards.
10) Accept personal cheques.
11) Get a toll-free phone number.
12) Include a long, strong guarantee – longer than your competitions.
13) Offer install payments for products more than $15 (“3 easy payments of just $10.99″), shown to boost response 15%.

11 Ways to Boost Coupon Returns:

1) Tell them in the headline or subhead to return the coupon.
2) Say “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” instead of “50% Off”.
3) Use a Big FREE! at the top of your ad.
4) Tell what the coupon brings; say it again inside the coupon itself.
5) Show what the coupon brings with a small photo or illustration.
6) Use a BOLD coupon border.
7) Set a hard (firm date) or soft deadline (“The first 100 people…”)
8 ) Provide checkboxes to get people involved.
9) Say “Valuable Coupon” at the top.
10) Give sufficient room for fill-ins.
11) Point to the coupon with bold arrows.

46-Point “Killer Ad” Checklist:

Headline:

1) _ Does it feature your product’s biggest benefit? (The #1 Most Important Rule)
2) _ Is it a real grabber? Does it elicit an emotional response?
3) _ Does it use any of the 22 Potent Headline Starts shown above?
4) _ Is it significantly larger than your body copy? Boldfaced too?
5) _ Is it powerful enough to get people to read your body copy?
6) _ Does it make some kind of offer?
7) _ Is it authoritative and not wimpy?
8 ) _ Is the headline set in Initial Caps. (e.g. This Is Initial Caps) Use ALL CAPS only if 5 words or less.
9) _ Is it in quotes? This can boost reading 25%.

Body Copy – First Sentance:

10) _ Are you using body copy jump-starters from above?
11) _ Does it naturally flow from the headline?
12) _ Does it get right into the benefits, and not about company bragging?
13) _ Does it almost force them to read the second sentance?
14) _ Is “you” one of the first few words?

Body Copy – General:

15) _ Does it focus on how the reader will benefit?
16) _ Does it tell your readers why they should buy from you rather than competitor?
17) _ Is your product/service exciting? Does your ad sound exciting?
18) _ Does it progress methodically and logically? 1. Get attention. 2. Stimulate interest. 3. Build desire. 4. Offer proof. 5. Ask for action.
19) _ Are you trying to sell only one product at a time?
20) _ Do you use selling subheads to break up long copy blocks?
21) _ Is the copy colorful, sprinkled with power visual adjectives where appropriate?
22) _ Is it believable? (Not overblown or ridiculous.)
23) _ Is it respectful of the reader and not insulting to his or her intelligence?
24) _ Is it emotional? Does it create emotion?
25) _ Do you use the principal of extreme specificity?
26) _ Are your words, sentences, and paragraphs short? Simple words?
27) _ Is your web copy set in a sans-serif typeface such as Arial or Verdana?
28) _ Do you tell your readers what you want them to do in super-simple way? 1. Clip this coupon. 2. Bring it to our store by Aug 21. 3. Save 50%.
29) _ Do you outright ask for the sale?
30) _ Did you set a deadline, if appropriate?
31) _ If you have a lot of benefits, do you list them in bullet or numbered list form?
32) _ Do you use testimonials? If you don’t have them, get them!
33) _ Is your business name and phone number large and instantly noticable?
34) _ Did you include your logo?
35) _ Do you give directions, maps, and landmarks, if necessary?
36) _ Did you key your ad to better track responses?

Layout and Design:

37) _ Did a professional designer produce your ad? (Not a layout person)
38) _ Is your headline big and bold?
39) _ Is the headline broken at the right words?
40) _ Is the ad easy to read? Is their a focus?
41) _ Is their sufficient white space? Did you wrap in white?
42) _ Did you indent your paragraphs? Makes reading easier.
43) _ Is the number of separate elements kept to a minimum?
44) _ Do you use art (photos and illustrations) relevant to your sales message?
45) _ Did you use a minimum number of typestyles? (One or two; three max!)
46) _ Do you feature a picture of a person looking at you?

Marketing Copy 101 – Ca$hvertising Summary | Arfan Bhatti

While there is a great amount of guidance on how to complete your Lasting Power of Attorney there are many ways to get it wrong and even the smallest mistake can result in the Lasting Power of Attorney to be rejected at registration.

To avoid having small errors which could result in the Lasting Power of Attorney being rejected and having a costly time either remaking a Lasting Power of Attorney if the donor still has capacity or going through a lengthy Court of Protection proceeding I would recommend getting your Lasting Power of Attorney checked or drafted by an individual who works in the sector. (whom you can contact by filling in the form on the right).

Below are completion errors I have encountered and the OPG replies. Though do remember that the advisor’s cannot bind the OPG so if in doubt make a new one! Also check out Lasting Power of Attorney FAQ.

Updated 26/06/11

Both certificate providers did not sign at the same time

“There is a strict order of signing which must be maintained, first must be Part A the Donor’s declaration, then Part B the Certificate Providers statement, and finally Part C the Attorney’s statement.

We are unable to register documents which are signed out of this order.

Once a Lasting Power of Attorney has been signed it cannot later be amended and countersigned or backdated.

In certain circumstances where the application has been signed out of the strict date order, the Office of the Public Guardian may request the Part C to be recompleted by the Attorneys.

However, our regulations do not allow the parts to be signed more than a year apart.

If the Donor and Certificate Providers signed the LPA more than a year ago, we would not now accept newly executed parts C. In this situation, the only way to proceed would be with a new application.”

Middle name not provided

“….as long as we have his first and surname this is sufficient.”

Signature date has been altered

“There cannot be manuscript changes to the LPA instrument; if it were accepted it would leave a window of opportunity to be questioned by a third party”

Rejected Exemption Form

“if the exemption is rejected the form will be held and client informed and registration payment requested”

Lasting Power of Attorney name or email struck out and correction intialled

“With an unregistered LPA any mistakes must be crossed through and written again nearby. The corrections must be initialled by the person completing that particular section of the form and their witness if appropriate.

With unregistered EPA’s any corrections will have had to be made before 1 October 2007.”

Donors do not speak english

“As long the clients understand what a Lasting Power of Attorney is and it’s implications and the Certificate Provider signs to confirm this, we would not have a need to query this.”

Donor has early signs of losing capacity

“Provided that a Certificate Provider’s statement is given, the Office of the Public Guardian would not query the donor’s capacity.” -(note Certificate Provider has to be in a position to comment so a doctor or practitioner)

Lasting Power of Attorney – Completion Errors | Arfan Bhatti

Hostgator is one of the few hosts I have found to deliver every time. Below is a selection of coupons for discounts. I urge you to give them a look and read below for the reasons I choose them.

Hostgator Coupons

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Click below for your discount!

Why I Use Hostgator – My Hostgator Review

These days hosting companies have similar offers and some may even be cheaper than Hostgator. Though with “Critical” websites you need the backing of a solid company.

Hostgator itself was created by a then teenager who started off selling Watermelons on the side of the road, moving to his first gaming site and slowly growing from there to become one of the largest hosting companies int he world.

I myself swayed slightly by the above started using Hostgator and have been for a while now, starting when I started to learn how to make a website. During this time I have “broken” the site more than once, had issues with setting things up and a huge array of technical difficulties.

Hostgator at every point has come through via their life chat/ email or phone support and got me up and running again in no time.

Support for your business website is a second to none requirement and when the site is personal and you get the same treatment that is a very welcome bonus.

For this reason alone I recommend Hostgator.

Throw in the fact that their uptime is 99.99%, prices are reasonable, speed is fast and have a huge array of extras such as website builders, adwords vouchers, SEO help and Cloudfront CDN to help speed up your site even more. this makes the deal oh so sweet.

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A Good Host – Hostgator Coupon and Promo Code | Arfan Bhatti

Below is a just a quick Lasting Power of Attorney Fact Sheet with some vital Q and A about Lasting Powers of Attorney (updated 05/06/2011). It is by no means complete, may have some inaccuracies and so should not be relied upon exclusively.

I advise all clients go see a Solicitor or a Will Writer regulated by the IPW.

Lasting power of Attorney reasons why

Videos help more sometimes as a medium to understand so below is a small video about Lasting Powers of Attorney and what could happen if you don’t have one. The Q and A follows the video.

What is an Lasting Power of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows someone to choose other people who they want to make decisions on their behalf when they lack mental capacity to make the decisions themselves.

The people involved

The person that grants the Lasting Power of Attorney is known as the Donor and the person/people they grant the power to are known as Attorney(s). There is then certain ‘Named People’ who are notified when the Lasting Power of Attorney is to be registered and lastly the Certificate Provider(s)

How does it work?

You (the Donor) have to be over 18 and have ‘mental capacity’ to make a Lasting Power of Attorney. So it is recommend that you make these documents at the same time as your Will, or generally as soon as possible.

Once the documents are completed, you can store them until you need to register them. Or you may opt to store them with your Wills using SafeStor or ClientCare services where available.

Types of Lasting Power of Attorney

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney, “Health and Welfare” and “Property and Financial Affairs”.

What is covered by the Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney?

The Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney covers decisions such as:

-          Deciding where the donor is to live.

-          Deciding what contact, if any, the donor is to have with certain other people.

-          The Donor’s day-to-day care, including diet and clothing.

-          Assessments for and provision of community care services.

-          Access to personal information about the donor.

-          Refusing life-sustaining treatment

The Attorney(s) can act only if the Lasting Power of Attorney is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and if the Donor has lost mental capacity.

What is covered by the Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney?

The Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney covers decisions such as:

-          Buying or selling property.

-          Opening, closing or operating any bank, building society or other accounts.

-          Claiming, receiving and using welfare benefits on the donor’s behalf.

-          Dealing with the Donor’s tax affairs.

-          Complying with a contract on the Donor’s behalf.

-          Paying the Donor’s debts.

-          Conducting legal proceedings on the Donor’s behalf.

-          Applying for any entitlement to funding for NHS care and community care services.

This Lasting Power of Attorney can have effect even when the Donor has not lost mental capacity (subject to registration), so the Donor can make decisions about certain matters and the Attorney(s) can make decisions on more complex ones if the Donor wishes. Otherwise it can be just registered when the Donor loses his or her mental capacity or the Attorney(s) reasonably believes this to be the case.

What are the benefits of an Lasting Power of Attorney?

An Lasting Power of Attorney allows you to plan in advance.

-          The decisions you want to be made on your behalf if/ when you lose capacity to make them yourself.

-          The people you want to make these decisions

-          How you want the people to make these decisions.

Not having an Lasting Power of Attorney can result in:

-          Your assets being frozen while the Court of Protection decides who should manage your affairs.

-          The court appoints a “Deputy”; this person will be appointed to take over your affairs. The Deputy will not be your Husband, Wife or other family member.

-          Deputies have limited powers and are supervised by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) who charge an annual fee. Professional Deputies also charge.

-          Those who help you “unofficially” may be breaking the law and subject to prosecution.

-          Contrary to popular belief your Husband or Wife cannot take over your affairs automatically.

-          The process without a Lasting Power of Attorney can be very slow and very expensive.

Having a Lasting Power of Attorney is a safe way of maintaining control over decisions made for you because:

-          It has to be registered with the OPG before it can be used (if someone else tries to register it you – and your Attorney(s) – will be able to make any objections).

-          You choose someone to provide a ‘certificate’ confirming that you understand the significance and purpose of the Lasting Power of Attorney.

-          You can choose ‘Named Persons’ to be told about your Lasting Power of Attorney when it is registered (so that they have an opportunity to raise concerns).

-          Your signature and the signatures of your chosen Attorney(s) must be witnessed.

-          From a legal perspective, your Attorney(s) must follow the Code of Practice of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 – if they don’t always act in your best interests the OPG can step in, and your Attorney(s) may be held accountable.

-          The OPG provides helpful support and advice.

What if I don’t have a Lasting Power of Attorney?

If you lose mental capacity at some point – for whatever reason – if you haven’t completed an Lasting Power of Attorney, other people may need to apply to the Court of Protection to be able to make any decisions on your behalf. This can be costly, and can be demanding and stressful for your relatives, friends and carers.

What if I already have an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA)?

The old EPA’s generally only cover the person’s financial affairs while the scope of an Lasting Power of Attorney may be greater. However each person’s circumstances are unique. Therefore it is best to talk to a Solicitor or Will writer to see if switching to a Lasting Power of Attorney will be beneficial for you.

Can I include Conditions and Restrictions in my Lasting Power of Attorney?

You can add conditions and restrictions in your Lasting Power of Attorney stating that your Attorney(s) must act in a certain way or cannot deal with a certain type of property etc. (such as your Investment Portfolio if you have appointed someone else to do this.)

However this is not recommended as drafting the clauses can be difficult  to get the intended effect or at the worst case scenario  the clause can be powerless and invalidate the Lasting Power of Attorney.

It may be an easier option to leave “guidance” to your Attorney(s).Therefore it is recommended that you have a discussion with your Consultant first if you wish to tailor your Lasting Power of Attorney.

Who is an Attorney and who should I appoint?

An Attorney or group of Attorneys appointed by you in the Lasting Power of Attorney will have the power to make decisions on your behalf such as the ones mentioned above. So you should only appoint someone you trust 100% and who knows what your wishes are.

Your Attorney has to be 18+ and in the case of the Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney cannot be bankrupt or have been declared bankrupt before. If they are  declared bankrupt in the future they cannot act as your Attorney and may result in bringing the Lasting Power of Attorney to an end.

You can appoint more than one Attorney and Replacement Attorneys to act for you. They can act:

• Jointly
• Jointly and Severally
• Jointly in some decisions and Jointly and Severally in other decisions.

If they are to act Jointly, all Attorneys must agree on a decision and if one cannot act (for reasons such as mental illness) the Lasting Power of Attorney becomes invalid. Furthermore if an Attorney dies, unless a Replacement Attorney is appointed the Lasting Power of Attorney again becomes invalid.

If an Attorney is your Spouse or Partner dissolution or annulment will also cause them to cease being an Attorney and result in the Lasting Power of Attorney becoming invalid.

If they can act Jointly and Severally, a death, divorce/dissolution or inability of one Attorney would not invalidate the Lasting Power of Attorney.

If they have to act Jointly in some decisions then as above if one Attorney cannot act and there is no replacement Attorney the Lasting Power of Attorney would be invalidated.

In the second and third instance when the Attorneys have the power to act independently also, the death, incapacity or divorce/dissolution of one would not affect the Lasting Power of Attorney.

Do the Attorneys get paid?

An Attorney is entitles to out-of-pocket expenses if they did work solely for the Donor. They can however only receive a fee for their work if it is indicated on the Lasting Power of Attorney form by the Donor.

What if my Attorney dies or cannot act?

After registration: if you have one Attorney and no Replacement Attorneys your Lasting Power of Attorney becomes unusable. If you have a replacement, they take over.

Before registration: if you have capacity you can make a new Lasting Power of Attorney and choose a new Attorney.

What if I don’t agree with my Attorneys decision?

If you still have capacity you are unhappy with your Attorneys actions you may revoke the Lasting Power of Attorney.

If your Attorney makes a decision when they believe that you lack the capacity to do so yourself and

make it in what they believe to be your best interests; you will need to discuss your concerns with them in the first instance.

If you still feel unhappy with their decision you can contact the OPG and advise them that you believe your Attorney(s) should not be acting or is not acting in your best interests and they will investigate.

Because of the complications that may occur, we suggest you only appoint people who you trust completely to act as your Attorney(s).

Who can I use as a Witness?

For the Donor you can use anyone present at the time of signing as a Witness as long as they are over 18. However this person cannot be an Attorney or a Replacement Attorney appointed in the Lasting Power of Attorney but can be the Certificate Provider.

For the Attorney the person witnessing again has to be over 18 however here it can also be a different Attorney as well as the Certificate Provider.

Who do I select to Notify on my Lasting Power of Attorney?

This is a safeguard within the Lasting Power of Attorney, upon application to register the Lasting Power of Attorney, these “Named Persons” will be notified and if they have any concerns they can be raised (such as pressure to register etc.).

It is suggested that you pick five people to notify so that if in the future one or more than one cannot be contacted for whatever reason this safeguard is still in place.

You can pick family members or friends as well as health or social care worker who knows you. You can also inform these individuals who the Attorneys are. You cannot however pick an Attorney or Replacement Attorney to be a ‘Named Person’ here.

When picking the individuals you should explain the Lasting Power of Attorney to them and the fact that upon attempted registration they can raise concerns if they feel that is the case.

Due to the nature of this safeguard you have to keep up to date address and contact details of the Named Persons with the Lasting Power of Attorney on a Separate piece of paper. You should NOT alter the Lasting Power of Attorney once it has been signed.

If an amendment is needed before the Lasting Power of Attorney has been signed please inform us.

If you do not wish to notify anyone when the application for registration of the Lasting Power of Attorney is put forward you will need to have two Certificate Providers as detailed below to sign the Lasting Power of Attorney.

Who is a Certificate Provider and why do I need one?

The role of the Certificate Provider is to discuss the Lasting Power of Attorney with the Donor and what the result of such a document could be. They have to be certain that the Donor fully understands the purpose of the document, its power, ensure they are not under any duress to create such a document and have the mental capacity to make such a document.

The Certificate Provider then signs the relevant part on the Lasting Power of Attorney confirming the above.

A Certificate Provider falls into two categories:

1)      Someone you have known personally for a period of at least 2 years.

2)      A professional who has the relevant professional skills and expertise, such as a Health Practioner, GP, Solicitor, Barrister etc.

They cannot be:

• a family member of either the Donor or any of the Attorneys;
• a business partner or employee of the Donor or any of the Attorneys
• The Owner, Director, Manager or employee of a care home where the Donor or any of his relatives live.

When Should I register?

Your Attorney(s) can only act for you once the Lasting Power of Attorney is registered.

Either the Donor (while he has Mental Capacity) or the Attorney(s) (if they feel the Donor has no longer got the mental capacity) have to apply to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) to register the Lasting Power of Attorney. Though before doing this they must notify the ‘Named Persons’ indicated on the Lasting Power of Attorney.

Why should I not delay the registration?

If you keep your Lasting Power of Attorney until you lose capacity, it may, by that time, have become out-of-date, or contain errors. When an application is then made to register your Lasting Power of Attorney, it will be rejected, and you will not be able to make another one.

Registration takes at least 6 weeks. If you need your Lasting Power of Attorney to be used urgently, it cannot be used during the 6 week period. If your attorney needs to make decisions urgently, they will have to apply for a Court order.

You do not need to pay a fee until your Lasting Power of Attorney is registered (please note you may be eligible for a fee exemption depending on your circumstances. Please ask our Consultant for more details)

You do not need to inform the OPG very time there is a change of address (or name) of any of the people in your Lasting Power of Attorney before registration

Acknowledgement: -

This document has been based on extracts from ‘A guide for people who want to make a Property & Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney’ and ‘A guide for people who want to make a Health & Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney’ produced by the Office of the Public Guardian (Crown copyrighted and hence “may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context”.)

The Guides can be found on the OPG website.

Lasting Power of Attorney Fact Sheet | Arfan Bhatti

This piece was originally written in 2008 after Google released more search parameters to get more result for specific search queries.

Search Engines such a useful piece of the net and if we can find out so much information about ‘prospective’ colleagues with some clever searching you have to think here that if ‘WE’ can use all of this for exploitation what about the owners of the search engines themselves? Where is THEIR line? THEY have access to a lot more data then what is displayed to the end user, and they have the money and resources to exploit this information that they receive.

This article by Shady (XMCP) goes through all of the current ‘free’ application and services by Google and gives a hint of how much of our information is truly out there with JUST Google.

Now before continuing I suggest you go have a read of the article and all the comments there as he explains the dilemma very well.

Google and marketing

The information gathered by Google from a marketing point of view is the ‘holy grail’. In the offline world companies spend thousands on market and customer research, giving out free prizes for completing short surveys and questionnaires etc.

The problem with such methods in essence is down to the psychological makeup of humans. We see ourselves in a different light, we want other to perceive us differently and we lie to achieve this. Therein is the flaw for the standard methods. Sure there will be some people telling the truth but for that one there will be 10, 20, 100 that don’t.

Now arguably all this data collected by Google is just ‘raw’ data it is not collated it is not analysed and it not processed in anyway. If this is true the Google are stupid from a business point of view.

Daily computers track stock market data, and this is analysed, discussed, elaborated on, and reported every day and this is just one niche.

Google of course algamate all the data they have and thus allowing theme to create a profile for each user. Thus creating one for each user. Lets look at what possibly could be achieved by this data.

They would know when I logged in to my computer and went online (Gtalk autosigning in), They then know which sites I went to (The IP addresses linked now to my Gtalk correlated with google analytics across the huge number of sites that use them). If I used orkut or Google checkout they would know my real name addresses and my average spending rate and add the fact they can track the searches conducted via Google search they would have a better idea what I am looking for.

What can they do with this?

They now with all this information can target certain ‘adds’ to me that have been tailored to my ‘profile’ thus allowing for greater conversion for them.

The problem now being I am assuming they are using this ‘profile’ only to better ‘adsense’ conversions. What if they were to sell this data say to an insurance company? to a car dealer? this would enable them to pitch me a car or insurance at my price range. Not a bad thing you say?

What if they sold this data to a porn company? what if they sold it to a pharmaceutical company? At any given time, any ‘authorized’ person will have access to virtually unlimited knowledge about anyone.

Fraud, theft, mayhem

Now lets assume for arguments sake that Google with all this data just improve their adsense conversion and aggregating data to help the planet as mooted by Jeff in Artificial Omniscience.

The fact remains they have this huge profile which can include name address and bank/card details. Throw in the fact that no system is secure, take a look at the recent British government ‘loss of data’. Or as XMCP points out loss or leakage of data around the board.

If ID fraud is so easy now imagine the power one would have if they could access Google servers, there would be fallout.

Lets assume then they make the data super secure and (no matter how improbable) the data cannot be stolen or leaked. we’re all good then right?

Intervention

I would like to highlight two points of information before continuing is a) The no2id Cards site and b) the recent fine by the EU to Microsoft for anti-competitive measures.

You may ask now wait a minute what the correlation?

Firstly the government has a lot of data on us already and IF Google keeps growing (as it will inevitably will) it will have an abundant amount of data on a lot of internet users.

Give it long enough they will piss off the wrong government which will result in ‘investigations’ ala Microsoft ‘anti-competitive’ fines by the EU.

During such an investigation along with the ridiculous abuse of ‘terrorism act’ powers (such as a recent example in the UK where they were used to track dog owners who didn’t pick up after their pets). This information could well indeed become in the hands of governments and other unscrupulous corporations and as mooted by me before having all this information with one party would be a big breach of liberties.

Maybe not to a noticeable extent here in the UK EU or the states but imagine if China got their hands on this? Cases such as this and the more recent arrests in an attempt to suppress freedom of speech would be a lot easier if state powers had such data or access to it.

Conclusion

I have talked about two main points the potential abuse of Google as per a marketing basis (which XMCP dwells on more) and if this data were to fall into the ‘wrong hands’ as to warrant abuse of rights, and for me that is the more scary and fighting prospect.

This data which is currently being accumulated by Google may be harmless but if it is accessed specifically to track down and stop freedom of speech, it could be a problem indeed. Sure the flip side states if the government had the ability to access this it may be easier to track down certain careless terrorist cells. Lets moot the government took control of Google …this would result in censorship and that in itself is never welcome.

It is something to ponder about…. your thoughts are welcome.

Information Superpower | Arfan Bhatti

Now as my friends before me passed me their LPC notes, I passed the ones I had written/ accumulated to them.

Now I believe you learn better by doing rather then writing notes, So I have compiled all my LPC notes for these topic namely the following:

bail rev.docx
CivLit Revision M1.3.docx
Company Revision M1.0.docx
CrimLit Revision M1.2.1.docx
Employment Revision M1.1.docx
EU.Competition M1.1.docx
FSA.docx
Insolvency Revision M1.2.docx
Partnership Revision M1.2.docx
PLP grid.docx
PLP M1.1.docx
Revenue Revision M1.2.docx
Redundant\CivLit Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\CivLit Revision M1.1.docx
Redundant\CivLit Revision M1.2.docx
Redundant\CrimLit Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\CrimLit Revision M1.1.docx
Redundant\CrimLit Revision M1.2.docx
Redundant\Employment Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\EU.Competition M1.0.docx
Redundant\Insolvency Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\Insolvency Revision M1.1.docx
Redundant\Partnership Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\Partnership Revision M1.1.docx
Redundant\Revenue Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\Revenue Revision M1.1.docx
Checklists\Board Meeting Procedure.xls
Checklists\Board Meeting Procedure1.1.xlsx
Checklists\Breach of contract.docx
Checklists\CALCULATING DIVIDENDS ON BANKRUPTCY.doc
Checklists\CNQVA table.doc
Checklists\Contingencyfeesvsconditionalfeesasummary.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG1.WS1.CriminalProcedure.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG2.WS2.CommencementofProceedings.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG3.WS3.Disclosure.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG4.WS4.Evidence!.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG5.WS5.Sentencing.doc
Checklists\evidence rev.docx
Checklists\Financialservices.doc
Checklists\General Procedures.doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop1.doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop2.doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop3.doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop4.doc
Checklists\MAKING BAIL APPLICATIONS.docx
Checklists\Official Copies.doc
Checklists\Plea in Mitigation.doc
Checklists\Plea_mode_of_trial.doc
Checklists\PLEAINMITIGATION[1].doc
Checklists\POST COMPLETION stage.doc
Checklists\Professional Conduct and Client Care Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
Checklists\Property-Remedies-R1[1].doc
Checklists\Property_pre-completion.doc
Checklists\Searches – Mandatory.doc
Checklists\Searches – Optional.doc
Checklists\sentencing rev.docx
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR CGT CALCULATIONS.doc
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR CORPORATE TAX CALCULATION.doc
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR IHT CALCULATION.doc
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR INCOME TAX CALCULATION.doc
Checklists\Unregistered Title.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\ADMISSIBILTYOFEVIDENCE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\ADMITTINGEVIDENCE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\ADVANCEDISCLOSURE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\allocation and direction.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\ATTHEPOLICESTATION[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\BAIL[1].doc
OtherPPL\BLP Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\BLP Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\BLP_1.doc
OtherPPL\CIV_LIT_1[1].doc
OtherPPL\civil lit edited.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\Civil Lit Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Confidentiality.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Conflictofinterest.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Contingencyfeesvsconditionalfeesasummary.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Cost.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Costsinfoandclientcarecomplaints.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Criminal Lit Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\disclosure & inspection of document.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\disclosureOFEVIDENCE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Dutiesowedto3rdparties.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\enforcement.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Evidence.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Feesandcosts.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Financialservices.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Financil Services Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Indemnityinsurance.doc
OtherPPL\insolvency_rev[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Instructions.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\interim application.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\investigating title.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\InvestigationTitle-RegisteredLand[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\jurisdiction & part 20 proceedings.doc
OtherPPL\Ple in Mitigation.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\PLEABEFOREVENUEANDMODEOFTRIAL[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\PLEAINMITIGATION[1].doc
OtherPPL\PLP 10.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\PRE CONTRACT STAGE – doing searches.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\preparation for trial.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Professional Conduct and Client Care Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Property Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\PROPERTYREVISIONNOTES[1][1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\purchasedeed[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Recoveryofchargessuingfornonpaymentofabill.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Regulationofsolicitors.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Requirementsofpractice.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Retainer.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Revenue Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes
OtherPPL\revision notes\rule1SPRsummary.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Securityoftenure[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\sendingfortrialEITHERWAYOFFENCES[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\sendingfortrialindictableoffences[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\SENTENCING[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\statement of case[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\THIRD PART Investigate Title (NEW KEM & EST).doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Undertakings.doc
OtherPPL\ws 11.doc
OtherPPL\ws 2-a.doc
OtherPPL\ws 4.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6- e.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6- c.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6- d.docx
OtherPPL\WS 6- F.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6-a.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6-b.docx
OtherPPL\ws 9.docx

The Documents Fit into 4 main categories:

The ones in the base folder are my own notes on the whole of a topic.

The ones in the ‘Redundant’ folder, are older version of my notes (may be useful as I cut bits out in the later versions).

The checklists are ofc checklists on the main areas, these include flowcharts stautue breakdowns, key point to look out for etc.

The ‘Other ppl’ folder are notes I got from other people, which may be useful as they have a different style to me in writing and explaining.

I hope these notes help your efforts, please note though that due to the way law works there are bound to be changes in it since I wrote these, key one to note the companies act.

So I suggest you go through the notes and amend them so they become your own, this will help you learn and update the bits that are required.

Revision Notes Download

OtherPPL\revision notes\ADMISSIBILTYOFEVIDENCE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\ADMITTINGEVIDENCE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\ADVANCEDISCLOSURE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\allocation and direction.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\ATTHEPOLICESTATION[1].doc
bail rev.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\BAIL[1].doc
OtherPPL\BLP Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\BLP Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\BLP_1.doc
Checklists\Board Meeting Procedure.xls
Checklists\Board Meeting Procedure1.1.xlsx
Checklists\Breach of contract.docx
Checklists\CALCULATING DIVIDENDS ON BANKRUPTCY.doc
Checklists
OtherPPL\CIV_LIT_1[1].doc
OtherPPL\civil lit edited.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\Civil Lit Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
Redundant\CivLit  Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\CivLit  Revision M1.1.docx
Redundant\CivLit  Revision M1.2.docx
CivLit  Revision M1.3.docx
Checklists\CNQVA table.doc
Company Revision M1.0.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\Confidentiality.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Conflictofinterest.doc
Checklists\Contingencyfeesvsconditionalfeesasummary.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Contingencyfeesvsconditionalfeesasummary.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Cost.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Costsinfoandclientcarecomplaints.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Criminal Lit Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
Redundant\CrimLit Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\CrimLit Revision M1.1.docx
CrimLit Revision M1.2.1.docx
Redundant\CrimLit Revision M1.2.docx
Checklists\CrimLit.LG1.WS1.CriminalProcedure.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG2.WS2.CommencementofProceedings.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG3.WS3.Disclosure.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG4.WS4.Evidence!.doc
Checklists\CrimLit.LG5.WS5.Sentencing.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\disclosure & inspection of document.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\disclosureOFEVIDENCE[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Dutiesowedto3rdparties.doc
Redundant\Employment  Revision M1.0.docx
Employment  Revision M1.1.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\enforcement.doc
Redundant\EU.Competition M1.0.docx
EU.Competition M1.1.docx
Checklists\evidence rev.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\Evidence.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Feesandcosts.doc
Checklists\Financialservices.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Financialservices.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Financil Services Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
FSA.docx
Checklists\General Procedures.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Indemnityinsurance.doc
Redundant\Insolvency  Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\Insolvency  Revision M1.1.docx
Insolvency  Revision M1.2.docx
OtherPPL\insolvency_rev[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Instructions.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\interim application.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\investigating title.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\InvestigationTitle-RegisteredLand[1].doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop1.doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop2.doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop3.doc
Checklists\ISWorkshop4.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\jurisdiction & part 20 proceedings.doc
Checklists\MAKING BAIL APPLICATIONS.docx
Checklists\Official Copies.doc
OtherPPL
Redundant\Partnership Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\Partnership Revision M1.1.docx
Partnership Revision M1.2.docx
OtherPPL\Ple in Mitigation.doc
Checklists\Plea in Mitigation.doc
Checklists\Plea_mode_of_trial.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\PLEABEFOREVENUEANDMODEOFTRIAL[1].doc
Checklists\PLEAINMITIGATION[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\PLEAINMITIGATION[1].doc
OtherPPL\PLP 10.docx
PLP grid.docx
PLP M1.1.docx
Checklists\POST COMPLETION stage.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\PRE CONTRACT STAGE - doing searches.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\preparation for trial.doc
Checklists\Professional Conduct and Client Care Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Professional Conduct and Client Care Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
Checklists\Property-Remedies-R1[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Property Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
Checklists\Property_pre-completion.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\PROPERTYREVISIONNOTES[1][1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\purchasedeed[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Recoveryofchargessuingfornonpaymentofabill.doc
Redundant
OtherPPL\revision notes\Regulationofsolicitors.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Requirementsofpractice.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Retainer.doc
Redundant\Revenue Revision M1.0.docx
Redundant\Revenue Revision M1.1.docx
Revenue Revision M1.2.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\Revenue Revision Notes_FINAL.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes
OtherPPL\revision notes\rule1SPRsummary.doc
Checklists\Searches - Mandatory.doc
Checklists\Searches - Optional.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Securityoftenure[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\sendingfortrialEITHERWAYOFFENCES[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\sendingfortrialindictableoffences[1].doc
Checklists\sentencing rev.docx
OtherPPL\revision notes\SENTENCING[1].doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\statement of case[1].doc
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR CGT CALCULATIONS.doc
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR CORPORATE TAX CALCULATION.doc
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR IHT CALCULATION.doc
Checklists\TEMPLATE FOR INCOME TAX CALCULATION.doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\THIRD PART Investigate Title (NEW KEM & EST).doc
OtherPPL\revision notes\Undertakings.doc
Checklists\Unregistered Title.doc
OtherPPL\ws 11.doc
OtherPPL\ws 2-a.doc
OtherPPL\ws 4.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6-  e.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6- c.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6- d.docx
OtherPPL\WS 6- F.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6-a.docx
OtherPPL\ws 6-b.docx
OtherPPL\ws 9.docx

If these notes have helped you please feel free to donate a few quid my way

Legal Practice Course – Law Revision Notes | Arfan Bhatti

The following article has be written based on my own research, if you are in such a situation where IVA’s are an option, I urge you to seek advice from the Citizens advice bureau or your own solicitor.

IVA’s main aim is to ‘provide an alternative and beneficial process to that of bankruptcy for those individuals who found themselves in a position of the most serious financial difficulties.’[1]

It can be argued that the root of IVA’s is held in the old 19^th century method of deeds of arrangements.[2] Both of the methods hold the same key ideology or makeup, the main difference though is that a voluntary agreement is binding where as a deed of agreement could be rendered void by a bankruptcy procedure.[3]

IVA’s have a number of areas that’s end result could be a detriment to the debtor. The first of being regarding the requirement of 75% majority approval of the creditors[4]. If the proposal is rejected (or due to the arrangement being challenged[5]) by the creditors the fee for the Insolvency practitioner (IP) still stands and this cost ranging from about £1,200 is another burden on an already bankrupt individual, as well as leaving them under threat of court action[6].

Also if successful with the application and the IVA is accepted the extra fees for the IP (or nominee) are still applicable and must be paid first before any repayments are made to creditors, therefore if at a later date the IVA should fail, the debtor may be at the same or worse position as when he started.

A further problem may arise if the individual who made it is not an IP but another ‘authorised[7]‘ personal.[8] Which is most cases are private companies such as Loan Direct etc.

‘…the IVA procedure is reliant on the skill and judgement of the professional individual fulfilling the roles of nominee and, usually thereafter, supervisor.’[9]

The problem being therefore that a lot of these private firms who run these IVA’s ‘sell’ the process as a miracle cure for individuals in debt and according to research[10]has resulted in an increase of IVA’s taken up (up to 28% of all bankrupts take this route), the problem being though that due to the business like nature of this professions with the individuals profiteering from the method, the question therefore must be put whether when creating these IVA arrangement do these nominee’s have the debtors best interest in heart, i.e. does it have a chance of succeeding or are they looking at their own bottom line and risk a high amount of failure[11].

Concluding then on the individual voluntary arrangements the time frame in which it occurs (up to five years) is in equal to other procedure though a lot longer than a default bankruptcy discharge though its benefit[12] arguably justifies the extra time. On the negative side though the extra expenditure in doing an IVA is great especially when an initial deposit is required and become an extra burden if it fails.

[1]Green, M (November 2002) Individual Voluntary Arrangements – Over-indebtedness and the Insolvency Regime, Short Form Report, http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/insolvencyprofessionandlegislation/policychange/ivapolicyresearch/ivapolicyresearch.htm – last accessed 14 April 2008.

[2] Tolley’s Insolvency Law and Practice, (1998) Vol 14, No 4 IL&P 230, 1 July 1998, The release of co-debtors under individual voluntary arrangements, Rick Munro Lamport Bassitt, discussing the judgment in Johnson v Davis.

[3]Page 79 Corporate and personal insolvency law.

[4] Consumer debt: causes and cures of financial distress by Sue Morgan. Ibid.

[5] S 262 IA1986 or s6 Sched A1 Para28 in the case of CVA’s

[6] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1245757.stm

[7] Under s389A  IA 2000

[8] Page 87 corporate and personal insolvency. Ibid.

[9] Page 321 of Insolvency legislation, annotations and commentary 2007ed. By L. Doyle and A. Keay.

[10] Consumer debt: causes and cures of financial distress by Sue Morgan. Ibid.

[11] Tolley’s Insolvency Law and Practice (2002) Vol 18, No 1 IL&P 9 1 January 2002New rules and new roles for the individual voluntary arrangement by Keith Pond

[12] 17% better realization of assets as compared to bankruptcy, ibid.

The Cons of Individual Voluntary arrangements as a remedy for insolvency in the UK | Arfan Bhatti

Intellectual property[1] is seen as ‘products of the mind, inventions, literary and artistic works, any symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce.’[2] Now to protect these IP’s there are four main methods.[3] Patents, copyright , Trademarks and registered designs.

‘Of all things, the produce of a man’s intellectual labour is the most peculiarly distinguishable as his own.’[4] As with all produce the marketable ability of the produce must be fully realised and protected. The biggest ‘realisation’ methods of intellectual property are encompassed by two of the four mentioned above; the first being copyright and the second being patents.

For the purpose of this article I will be focusing on each in turn looking at how they are created, the protection offered and any basis to the apparent differences of the two.

Starting with copyright law, I feel a bit of background is needed to understand fully the need for it and its commercial ramifications.

Prior to the 15^th century there was no method of video recording, audio recording or even mass producing literary works.[5] The method of producing copies of books was done by hand and mostly by learned personal of the church.[6]

The introduction of the printing press was firstly controlled by licensing to the printers certain books for a period of time. The first copyright act[7]shifted this onus to the authors giving them rights if which they could transfer to the printers who would print their work.[8]

The Berne Convention[9] attempted to ‘unify’ international copyright law as to provide protection of the law throughout the world. The law as it stands is held in The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (‘CDPA’)[10]

We can see that the main trigger for the introduction of copyright law was the introduction of mass production. Mass production and distribution being the trigger, because it gave rise to the possibility of exploiting another’s work without proper credit given.

This ability to mass produce further extended copyright protection to include dramatic and musical works, databases, artistic works, sound recordings films and broadcasts.[11]

So with the background set and to an extent we must ask what exactly does copyright protect and how do we get it?

To be protected by copyright law firstly it must fall in to one of the above ‘types’.[12] Secondly the work must be original.[13][14] This does not mean the item has to be totally unique but your version or interpretation must be unique. This gives it great scope and materials such as coupons for football pools[15] or compilations of programmes[16] can be held as copyrightable.

Copyright law protects the ‘expression’ of the author but not the idea, procedure or methods of operation.[17] This meaning that there can be a number of different versions of a story about a cat and mouse, but your version of the story would be protected.

The last requirement is that the item has to be ‘recorded, in writing or otherwise’.[18]

Once these requirements are fulfilled according to the Berne convention which set the basis for the current UK law, the author(s) automatically gain copyright protection with no registration needed.[19][20]

The period of protection depends on what section the type of work falls in to. For example if they fall in to Section1 (1)a. i.e. literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, then the protection lasts for the life of the author and 70 years.[21] For sound recordings it is 50 years from the end of the year that it is produced.[22] For films it lasts 70 years from the end of the year of which the last of the specified personnel die.[23] Lastly for typographical arrangements it lasts for 25 years from the end of the year it was first published.[24]

The next question that must be asked is what is protected? The main areas protected are held in S16 CDPA, which states the following:

(a) to copy the work;

(b) to issue copies of the work to the public;

(ba) to rent or lend the work to the public;

(c) to perform, show or play the work in public;

(d) to communicate the work to the public;

(e) to make an adaptation of the work or do any of the above in relation to an adaptation;

As well as these ‘Economic’ rights[25] there are also some Moral Rights.[26] These rights arise when the work is commercial published or made available to the public.[27] There are two main ‘moral’ rights that last as long the economical ones.

Firstly there is the right for ‘paternity’ this basically gives the right to the author to be identified for his work.[28] To protect against infringement of this right though it must be asserted by a statement of writing.[29] This right though does not apply to computer generated items (s79(2) CDPA),or published works such as newspapers encyclopaedias or other collective pieces of reference.[30]

The flip side of this right then is that a person has the moral right not to have work attributed to him that is not his.[31]

The second big moral right is held under section 80 of the CDPA, which states that an author or director has a right to prevent derogatory treatment of their work.[32] This right unlike the paternity right does not require any assertion on the copyright holders side and comes in to play with ‘alterations adaptations which amounts to distortion or mutilation of the works…’[33] [34]

Patents like copyright stems from the late 15^th century. The crown issued monopolies to people for different methods of productions etc. The earliest of such patents recorded in 1449 in which Henry VI granted a patent to Flemish-born John of Utynam.[35]

Patents now are governed in majority by the Patent act 1977 and have the same aim as envisioned by the 15h century model. Namely the monopoly granted by registering the patent by the inventor is used as an incentive to encourage innovation.[36]

To apply for a patent there are three main bodies you can apply to the UK intellectual property office for national protection,[37] or apply to the European patent office, which under European Patent Convention 1973 gives ‘the applicant …a bundle of national patents effective in each country under the countries own jurisdiction.’[38] The last alternative is to apply to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva under the terms of the Patent Cooperation Treaty 1970. [39] Though this unlike the previous two this does not grant immediate protection, what it is, is a body that conducts international search on current patents and creates a report on items that may cause issues for the patent.[40]

For the purpose of the next part I will be focusing on the UK-IPO process. To apply for a patent the following is needed under the patent act 1977[41]:

(a)     the invention is new;

(b)     it involves an inventive step;

(c)     it is capable of industrial application.

To apply for the patent the patentee has to firstly prepare a specification, which must include a written description (along with illustrations), legal ‘claims’ that set out the distinct technical nature of the invention, and a summary of all the import technical aspects of it. This must be sent with the 1/77[42] form.

After the filing is complete form 9A/77 must be filled to conduct a search to see of any similar patents are already there therefore making this one void. Also at this stage the invention is also checked for has taken an inventive step as required by 1(b).

If your meet the criteria and the application is not repealed then the patent is published. After this you will have to fill out form 10/77 which results in a substantive examination, which results I you getting possible amendments or getting granted the patent for a maximum period of 20 years (subject to renewal fees).[43]

Once complete Under s.60(1)(a) of the Patents Act 1977, UK patents provide an inventor the protection to prevent others from: ‘making, keeping, disposing of, offering to dispose of, using or importing the product.’[44]

The protection provided by the patent is determined by: i) the nature of patent as a right against independent inventors; ii) the uses of an invention exclusive to the patent holder; iii) a determination of scope of the invention claimed in the patent; iv) the range of available defences and compulsory licences; and v) the duration of the right.[45]

This wide scope on what is a monopolistic regieme has caused problems an example of which can be seen in the speech of Lord Hoffman in Kirin-Amgen Inc v Hoechst Marion Roussel Ltd [2005][46], where he stated:

“The need set clear limits upon the monopoly is not only…in the interests of others who need to know the area ‘within which they will be trespassers’ but also in the interests of the patentee, who needs to be able to make clear that he lays no claim to prior art of insufficiently enabled products or processes that would invalidate the patent.”[47]

Now with the basis for methods set I would like to look at the possible basis of the current standing of the law in each area.

It has been argued that the protection of intellectual property is akin to a cyclic pattern consisting of rewards which act like an incentive for further innovation which are then rewarded. [48]

Furthermore the economical basis on which these protections stand is to give a monopoly to the person of successful.

So it would seem economical and innovations are the two main driving factors of creating and protecting intellectual property.

If we firstly compare the requirements we can see that while copyright is akin to an automatic right for the most part the protection offered as seen above is to protect the economical value of item. For example Copying, rights to distribute, rental, public performance and communication and adaption rights are all which hold economical value for owner of the copyright.

If we then look at the exceptions provided by copyright law such as making temporary copies,[49] Research for a non-commercial purpose,[50]Private study,[51]Critiquing and reviewing,[52]Lending by public libraries,[53]Use in relation to non-commercial disabilities, all public administrative work done and incidental inclusion.[54]

These exceptions arguably do not take away and economical value of the copyrighted good. [55] Therefore falling in to the cyclic explanation as described above.

If we then look at patents we can see that its requirements from the offset require the need of innovation[56] and the requirement of commercial application.[57]

Further to the point of encouraging innovation, it is argued that all innovation is based on the cumulative knowledge of the area in which it is based. This ideology can be seen in the default length of patents. The period though extendable to maximum of twenty years, is rarely done so due to fast moving nature of the majority of industries.

This viewpoint of encouraging innovation is further extended by the newly in enforcement of the European Patent convention;[58] Which sets the following as non-patentable:

(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;

(b) aesthetic creations;

(c) schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers;

(d) presentations of information.[59]

These exceptions can be seen vital to the backing of the ideology as these are all methods (article 52) that would enhance and possible increase the chance of innovation and progress in the fields. Or just improve and create new business[60].

The problem with this viewpoint that patents are there to encourage innovation is that firstly the fact the process to apply for patent is an expensive process and the only way an inventor can do this is either be willing to take the financial risk or sell his product before hand to a 3^rd party who would be willing to cover the costs.[61] The danger of approaching third parties with your new idea is that if it results in the ‘idea’ being common knowledge it would result it in no longer being novel and therefore would fail the patent criteria.

Secondly due to this cost involved of getting a patent the inventor if not relying on a third party for financial banking would have to pick and choose which innovations he would want to patent, on top of this the criterion for the innovation to be industrially applicable creates another problem, as the inventor does not necessarily have the business acumen to know what is and what isn’t commercially viable, i.e. what will sell and what would not.[62]

This leads me to the conclusion that the main aim or basis of patents is the commercial aspect, not in the sense of copyright where all work has a possible commercial benefit but the fact that patents are aimed at encouraging innovations that would make money. Therefore possible cutting out ‘humanitarian’ innovations, adding to the fact article 53 states:

(a) inventions the publication or exploitation of which would be contrary to “ordre public” or morality, provided that the exploitation shall not be deemed to be so contrary merely because it is prohibited by law or regulation in some or all of the Contracting States;

This getting rid of the incentive for researching these innovations, adding more to the fact that cosmetic surgery techniques are patentable where as normal surgery and treatment methods are not[63] is further de-motivation for this area.

In conclusion we can see that patents started as a monetary incentive for innovation and this monetary incentive is what has been sculpting the law to its current position, to achieve maximum economical benefit, though this has moved to a wider economical field then to just for the inventor. While copyright started off as a controlled incentive became a way to innovate more creativity due to the fact of its easy acquisition, its wide array of protection and its easy economical utilization.

Copyright v Patent Protection | Arfan Bhatti