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Legal Jargon

October 30, 2009

Legal jargon: reasonable in all the circumstances, subject to due consideration of the factual nexus, or a load of old tosh? The Campaign for Plain English believes that it is possible to convey legal ideas in quotidian terminology, and cites the text below, one of m’learned friends’ finest, as an example of everything that is wrong about legal jargon. As a former lawyer Blade confesses, with some sheepishness, that it makes perfect sense to him, but he is going to reconsider the situation forthwith.

I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the 2nd of April. The purpose of my suggestion that my client purchases an area of land from yourself is that this can be done right up to your clearly defined boundary in which case notwithstanding that the plan is primarily for identification purposes on the ground the position of the boundary would be clearly ascertainable this in our opinion would overcome the existing problem.

I look forward to hearing from you once you have reconsidered the situation.

Social Networking in the Workplace

October 30, 2009

Back in the old days, when e-mail first entered the workplace, many a legal brain was put to good use in drafting codes of practice to ensure that employees did not press ’send’ and commit themselves or, worse, their employers to something which could wreak havoc in PR terms or even provoke litigation.

The same now needs to happen with social media. E-mail is akin to snail mail these days, with Twitter offering instant communication and many companies having set up Facebook pages and blogs. In such a world, content may be king but not if it is defamatory, otherwise contrary to law or simply ill-judged.

There’s more on this at the Social Networking Law Blog.

Pictured courtesy of arthit: a social network analysis of a football field. Given the propensity of some sportsmen to get into trouble thanks to Twitter, m’learned friends could profitably draft a few codes of practice for them, too.

A Bonus-Free Banker

October 29, 2009

Swordplay applauds Robin Budenburg, one of UBS’s star bankers, who has joined UK Financial Investments (UKFI) for a bonus-free, pension-free salary of £155,000. Rudenburg’s arrival at UKFI, a vehicle set up by the Treasury to manage the government’s interests in banks, will see him run stakes in RBS, Lloyds and the Rock. His new salary is believed to be a tenth of what he took home at UBS, proving that not all bankers are obsessed with outsize bonuses. There’s more at City AM.

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