Random fire 16

A man who bought a wig and gown on eBay and then gave a grossly inept imitation of a barrister in court became the first person jailed for ‘pretending to be a barrister’. The judge said to him “You wanted to appear more important than you are.” Solicitor-Inadequates up and down the country have been inundating the Law Society phone lines to ask if they are safe.

Talking of inadequates the Home Secretary, who about as credible as a Downs Syndrome candidate at a Mensa membership test, is to curtail the use of anti-terror legislation by local councils to catch people not clearing up their dogs’ poop or putting rubbish out too early. It is still appropriate to use the powers to catch fly tippers ans suchlike it seems. The central complaint that excessive criminal laws are being justified by the phoney “War on Terror” remains. Neo-Labour admits that the limited restrictions on terror law abuse are only being done for reasons of spin: “He admitted the scale of council snooping was undermining public support for the anti-terrorism law.” One can’t have the sheep wising up, obviously.

Apparently Facebook can now be used, in Australia, to provide service. In principle Geeklawyer would say that in the UK this would also be acceptable under CPR rule 6.2 as a method of service:

(1) A document may be served by any of the following methods —

…

(e) by fax or or other means of electronic communication in accordance with the relevant practice direction.

Roughly, the party would need to agree to such a manner of service unless the court provided for alternative service. @moonwatch23 speculated whether twitter would acceptable in the same way; yes, probably:

“@solicitor @loser re Bastard v Loser: ur served herewith http://is.gd/uTYmb. LOL, ur totally pwned ”