41. It doesn’t matter what your legal rights may be or what you’re entitled to if your opponent doesn’t roll over or pay up, agree or whatever then you are faced with court.
Lloyd Barrett
42. If you take somebody to court and it is allocated to the Small Claims Track (under £5000) and you lose then usually you will only pay any court costs and not legal costs. This is to encourage people not to instruct solicitors on small value claims and encourage mediation/settling out of court.
43. If someone transfers their house to (for example) their children in anticipation of going into a nursing home then the local authority can still sell the house (even though it now belongs to somebody else) to pay for care fee’s. There is actually no timescale after which the house is safe from the local authority but the golden rule is “the longer the better”.
44. A bus driver can refuse to accept anything other than the correct fare and can also refuse to give change. You are of course at liberty not to take up the bus driver’s kind offer to take a £10 note off you for a 10p fare. In that particular case you have no absolute right to travel.
45. Some criminal convictions do not have to be disclosed after a certain period of time under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Criminal convictions of 2.5 years or more are never spent for the purposes of the act and are always discloseable if you are asked. Some convictions are never spent under the ROOA for certain occupations such as banking, teaching, the legal profession, accounting etc to name a few.
46. If you park in an area which is “pay and display” and the machine is broken you still commit an offence, parking without paying the fee. You may be able to plead mitigation but none the less, you have committed an offence. Strictly speaking, you should find another machine and pay at that one.
47. Land Law’s in England & Wales and Northern Ireland are very similar although the procedures vary somewhat. Land Law in Scotland is completely different and uses completely different terminology.
48. English solicitors can practice law in England and Wales but not in Northern Ireland or Scotland. Similarly, Scottish lawyers can only act in Scotland and Northern Irish lawyers only in Northern Ireland.
49. If you take on the lease of a building and there is VAT on the rent and the value of the lease means that it is subject to stamp duty land tax then you pay stamp duty land tax on the VAT. Yes, you actually pay tax on tax which you have had to pay.
50. If you die, your debts do not necessarily die with you. If you leave no assets money or house then your debts can die with you. If you leave any assets etc then your creditors have first call on them to pay any debts before any beneficiaries.
