Tomorrow our homespun music festival "Rock Garden" goes into its 4th year. This time I thought I had got my performing and DJing duties seriously reduced to allow me to enjoy, in particular, the youngsters playing original material. A couple of last minute drop outs (trouble in the oil industry on the Caspian sea etc.), and a request for a Mama Mia medley mean I have an extra 45 minutes playing to do. All under rehearsed and at the last minute.
We get my eldest and his mate to do bass and drums on all our Weller/Jam repertoire which is great fun for a change but I am most looking forward to doing passable covers (my singing excluded) of these two songs from Raising Sand with our lass -as we say on Teesside:
If you are local, have a chair and a picnic you are very welcome.available
What, as Harry Hill might say, are the chances of this happening are?
Both 2 solicitors on an appeal panel of 3, for a hearing next week, deliberately chosen so that they are "out of area" are JRS clients creating a potential conflict of interest.
One afternoon next week available for in-house training then!
Otherwise it is a quiet as mice here -is everyone on holiday?
I am running the office, probably very ineffectively, by myself this week due to annual leave and Leeds festival induced back problems. Alongside that I have a range of urgent matters to deal with having finalised the course notes for the next shouting tour (the reasons for yesterdays silence).
So a contract reconciliation query, a check of one of the last ever Crown Court special features notice and two appeals to get on with between phone calls and stupid marketing faxes for car lease and mobile phone deals. Beyond that there is a sense of mid-summer (more like mid-autumn) lethargy spreading over the world of legal aid. Unless you know differently.
I discovered the fun of putting my i Pod on "shuffle" during my recent holiday. The result? You become reacquainted with artists you would probably not otherwise seek out or songs which you would not trawl through an album to hear.
Today's song meets both categories, long forgotten artist and a fantastic single which enticed me to waste the full album cover price. I might use shuffle for Friday Song purposes more often.
I am putting the final touches to my next training course, a national tour with TMT trying to provide a survivors guide to the multiplicity of assessment and audit mechanisms. This and a number of phone queries this week have lead us to the following conclusions.
Firstly we always forget that there is a continuing need for basic billing training over and above the never ending round of courses on new initiatives. This because of new staff and a need to do a bit of routine "revision". One call in particular demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of Mags Court standard fees which has probably cost the firm thousands.
Secondly we are always, stupidly, completely unprepared for the usual rush of in-house requests as the CPD year end approaches. So this year we have listed the main half dozen or so titles available for immediate delivery. We can do 3 or 6 hours on site either out of desperation for points or as a cost effective alternative to commercial providers.
If you are interested in either give us ring
*Shouting is the JRS technical term for Law Society Accredited CPD Training
I have to say I was a little cynical about the "amnesty" on UPOA claims achieved in the settlement between TLS and the LSC earlier in the year. This case would seem to reinforce my view. Got an active case to get on with once my next course notes are finalised.
The depressing nature of "first week back from holiday syndrome" continues with a failed PR "appeal". This made worse by a lack of evidence of consideration of some of the arguments put in the response. To a degree no change there then.
Of perhaps more import is an update to yesterdays "audit watch". To follow that analogy through we now have two swallows, and this one in close geographical proximity to the first, so perhaps there is something in the air.
One swallow does not a summer make. The same probably holds for audits - one firm facing a "KPI Audit" in October probably does not indicate the start of a fully blown LSC audit schedule, however that is what one of our clients faces in a couple of months. Quite what data the LSC hold to allow for reliable conclusions to be drawn about a supplier is not entirely clear. This, of course, makes it all the more important that firm's own reporting data integrity is of the highest order and can be comprehensively interrogated to counter any potential "amber" or "red" KPI findings. Our CDS 6 and CMRF Wizards are free and can assist in this regard.
Pleas let us know if you have just received the dreaded call from you Account Manager.
Well true to form, and you will all have experienced this, it is a return from holiday to a cold, both actual and by comparison, wet and dreary UK. This time in addition to the usual first day clear down of accumulated e-mail, messages and the like we have another Category 4 Peer Review outcome to deal with. (The news of another, and thankfully more common Cat. 2 result, doesn't soften the blow this end).
So not the best first day back in the office so far.
It is not often we at JRS get to sing our own praises, due to Mr Pottinger’s modesty. However, our Mr Barnes was audit-sitting this week for a firm in Birmingham where the auditor was being hot-reviewed by a London LSC Representative, who later confessed to Steve that her heart sank when he was introduced as a Consultant; apparently this was based on her previous experience of some consultancy firms who sometimes set up elaborate systems which suppliers would simply only pay ‘lip service’ to.
The auditor went on to say that this particular audit was a good example of how suppliers and consultants can work together extremely effectively.
We at JRS have always prided ourselves on a more proactive approach and this was borne out in the auditor awarding the firm a new Criminal Contract with no Corrective Action required.
I am now going off to do our annual appraisals, relevant induction and office supervision meetings!
Well done Mr Barnes!
Simon is touring the nation with TMT in September:
Manchester - 3 September
Newcastle - 8 September
Birmingham - 10 September
Cardiff - 16 September
Leeds - 18 September
London - 23 September
You can call TMT Training on: 01323-739988 - tell them I sent you . . . .
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The positive feedback from Billing Staff to our Fixed Fees made Easy Sessions is proving that this is a worthwhile and useful exercise - please call Sandra on 01642-225553 or send a message to jrs@we-are-jrs.co.uk to book a session in your area.
News just in from our man on the South Coast, Andy Bean, who has been told that a number of South West based firms have been invited to take part in a Pilot Scheme for the LSC’s Online System in both Crime and Family, for their July submissions.
We look forward to hearing from firms who have been invited to take part and eagerly await to see if the Pilot is successful . . . we will keep you all informed.
Andy says he is looking forward to the prospect of moving to Weymouth as he has also found out that the Olympic Volleyball Sessions will be held there in 2012 . . .
Plus a "Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" for last Friday.
I loved 1981 - I was such a Trendy & Bright Young Thing (Terry Hall's hair has just reminded me) constantly full of the Joys of Spring . . well, Pernod and Black probably . . (will say no more)
