paralegal blog | Law Careers | Trial bundles

You catch me in the middle of preparing Trial bundles (again) – this is for a financial hearing coming up in March on one of our files (Inheritance Act claim).  I am currently liaising with the other side in connection with what should go into the bundles so the fun of actually sorting these out, copying and paginating them all hasn’t even started yet!  I can see myself getting lost in a desk of papers next week!

In addition to this the amnesty period of the loan company I do work for has now passed (they give borrowers four weeks over Christmas without any threat of action) but obviously now we are well past Christmas the instructions for action are coming in thick and fast.  No matter how many messages I leave for people they all seem to think that the best way to deal with their arrears on their loans is by ignoring my calls and my letters – its only when the Court papers land on their doormat do they contact me and by that time the main costs have already been racked up so it ends up costing them more!  I have to say this line of work is the most frustrating for me as on the whole if an offer is made by the borrower of a lesser monthly amount then 9 times out of 10 this is accepted.

We have also had a few more LPA enquiries coming through.  For those reading this who do not know what an LPA is – it is a Lasting Power of Attorney.  This replaced the EPA (Enduring Power of Attorney) and is a document used when someone has lost or is losing capacity or for some other reason cannot make decisions for themselves.  There are two separate LPA’s available and the Public Guardian Office’s website is really helpful if you wanted further information.  The forms were actually released a few years ago but now the initial teething problems seem to have passed the forms seem now to trusted a bit more by the general public.

Talking about forms – I am still trying to get my head around the new Inheritance Tax IHT400 forms – when I am completing on of these I spend half the day flicking backwards and forwards from one box to another.  They are an administration nightmare as they do not work in a logical way – the forms send you from box 108 to 98 to 36 etc – it is one of those forms that looking at it on screen will not do so you have to print off the 100+ pages!  Not particularly environmentally friendly!

Finally I am pleased to report that following my Blog in January I have almost completed two or three of the outstanding Probate (which means about two drawers of space in my filing cabinets will be emptied!).  I don’t know who will be more pleased, the beneficiaries or myself!!

More next time…..