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From the Chairwoman Accelerated Procedure now allows for sensible parties to file agreed directions orders for approval by the District Judge on paper only. On the other hand, some offices have found that working from home has caused communication difficulties particularly with new staff, and there has recently been guidance from the SRA on the difficult problem of supervision of staff and consultants in these circumstances.
Dear Members. I write this as a fully vaccinated and therefore somewhat liberated older person, but in the knowledge that not all members will be as lucky as I am as yet. I hope at all of you will soon benefit from the vaccinations, and if any are hesitating before taking advantage of the process, I do urge you to do so. Of course, there are those whose medical condition may sadly make that impossible, but I do hope that as a whole the UK can reach such a level of vaccination as will allow us to revert to normal social and business practise as soon as possible. Whilst there are criticisms of the government’s handling of the pandemic at the beginning of last year, we seem to be ahead of the game on vaccinations, which is great news for the future of our families and businesses. I write this expecting that this afternoon the lifting of all restrictions scheduled on the 21st of June is likely to be delayed by up to a month, but still optimistic that by the autumn things will be back to normal. Of course, for some people normality will never return, either because they have lost loved ones or they are still suffering from long term conditions as a result and I extend my heartfelt sympathy to all those in that position. And for those of us working in litigation in particular, normality is permanently changed by the rapid development of online and virtual systems for filing documentation and court hearings. Most of us have been saying that the courts could do this for a very long time, but it had previously been refused on the basis of cost. Somehow the money has been found, and we are now working with systems which two years ago would have seemed impossible to hope for. In my own family law practise, we have found in particular first directions appointments by telephone or video systems to be more than adequate, and we are delighted that the
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The SPG has also changed and improved over the pandemic, in particular in the number of webinars either produced by ourselves or sourced from useful third parties, which we have presented online to our members and are now listed on the website. There is a total of 11 webinar recordings now available, and this is going to be a permanent feature of the offering of the SPG for our members in the future. We have been delighted by the response we have had to webinar attendance, on occasion having over 100 people listening to a webinar which was then further downloaded off the website by more interested members. So, we have managed to keep up our participation with you, but there is nothing like a face to face meeting. It is therefore with great delight that I announce that we will be having a live conference at MacDonald Berystede Hotel, Bagshot Road, Sunninghill, Ascot SL5 9JH from the 8th to the 10th of October 2021. Of course, I say that with all fingers and toes firmly crossed, but as I have already said I do hope that the autumn should see such a change in the circumstances that we can be confident that we can once again meet up in person to enjoy the networking, information and fellowship which we missed so badly last year when Malaga had to be cancelled. Please look at the preliminary notice in this magazine, there will be more details as soon as possible. On Wednesday of this week, I am visiting the hotel in order to finalise the arrangements, after which more information will be available. And of course it is my absolute delight to announce that when we have the annual general meeting, Joanna Connolly, my wonderful Vice Chair will take over as Chair of the Group and I have no doubt she will do an excellent job! In spite of the pandemic the executive committee have continued meeting virtually, although we are hoping to have our first live meeting for 15 months in July. The members of the committee have carried on working on your behalf, but we are always looking for new volunteers who might wish to participate as members of the executive committee — and you are invited to attend any executive committee meeting as an onlooker to see whether or not the process might attract you.
Our website, apart from the webinars referred to, is developing constantly as we are updating documentation useful to our members, and I urge you to join the webinar group online so that you can have access to all the information available, and so that we have your updated details and emails circulated do not go astray. During the course of the last few months I have carried on being involved in committee work, and in particular I tended a meeting between the SPG executive representatives and the board of the SRA. This was broad based and clear speaking and it will not surprise you to know that there was significant discussion over the question of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund. I will not attempt to go into that in detail as Clive Sutton our Secretary has been entirely in charge of that matter, and I depend on his expertise in his report to reveal all. We also discussed the issues over the flexibility of practises, including consultants, and freelancers. This was discussed in terms of guidance but also in terms of training and opportunities. As a result, we hosted a webinar run by the SRA on the new Solicitors Qualifying Examination on the 2nd June 2021, discussing the changes in the light of increased flexibility and opportunities for sole practitioners and their staff. In my last report in Solo I announced our pride that one of our Law Society Council members Lubna Shusha had been appointed Deputy Vice President of the Law Society, but since then David Green who was the President has resigned, and that means that Lubna has moved up a notch to become Vice President - all the more congratulations to her and I am sure that she is going to do a wonderful job. Finally, we are coming to LEGALEX 2021 in November. I do hope that this will proceed as a live event this year and I urge you to come along and talk to us, bringing any questions or problems which we may be able to help with or refer you to third parties for a solution. I even hope to be a speaker during the exhibition, with the help of Sukhjit Ahluwalia who is using his expertise to arrange not only our place at the exhibition but also my opportunity for a speaking slot. I wish all of you a happy summer, and look forward to the lifting of the current restrictions so that we can go forward with new and improved systems and hopefully improved and profitable businesses. Penny Raby SPG Chairwoman 2021 – 2022 Please contact me at pennyraby@harmony-house.co.uk
