Investigation & Surveillance for Lawyers

TP Investigations Limited is the litigation support arm of www.Ten-Percent.co.uk. Since 2001 we have been providing discrete surveillance and investigation services to law firms and their clients, and have a good track record of getting results. You can ring 01745 819238 to request a quote, visit the website at http://www.tp-investigations.co.uk/ or email enquiries@tp-investigations.co.uk

The Case of the Walking Woman

We were instructed by an Australian law firm who had strong doubts about a claim that had been put in by an English claimant living in Yorkshire, who had been injured on a train in New South Wales, and they had been curious as to the truth of her statement. As a result, they instructed us to undertake two days of surveillance to see what her movements were. We were in possession of her Witness Statement from the Australian law firm, which stated that she was having trouble walking and was unable to get out of her house without the help of a wheelchair.

We undertook surveillance for two days, recording the claimant walking & running up the street and moving about freely, and clearly not having the difficulties she claimed to be suffering from in her Witness Statement. With the work that we undertook, the Australian defendants were able to reduce their offer to her before trial, and the case settled at a substantially lower level than would otherwise have been the case.

This was a difficult case, as the claimant lived on a very busy street with no parking, and we had to be very careful not to get spotted. Our investigator read the newspaper a lot! The joys of private investigation work – lots of hanging around and waiting for just those few moments of filming opportunities.

You can follow our investigator as he goes about some of the assignments we take on via Twitter at www.twitter.com/investigatoruk

House Prices Down 28%, but is this the bottom of the market?

UK property prices will have fallen by 28% from their peak before the market downturn ends, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has said. The economists’ group predicted prices would reach their trough early next year, but said there was little chance of real price growth until 2013. Prices peaked in the third quarter of 2007 and have slid sharply since then.

Average prices would rise to £170,000 by the end of 2013, from a predicted £144,000 at the end of 2009, it said. The CEBR added that improved conditions in the housing market suggested that property prices only had about a further 8% left to fall.

This article perhaps indicates that we are approaching the bottom of the property market, and that things are going to start picking up very shortly. We have heard similar stories from estate agents and property consultants recently, as they are seeing 1st time buyers back in again through the door, and trying to pick up a bargain.

We have also heard it said that the fact that the extra homes it has been claimed we need over the next 10-15 years have not been built as a result of the downturn, and as soon as purchasers get a whiff of the potential shortage we will see a sharp upturn in the property market, which will fuel the legal jobs market again with commercial property, corporate finance, conveyancing, wills & probate and related work all picking up speed again.

Is this far fetched? You can comment on the article below…

Jonathan Fagan, www.ten-percent.co.uk

Salary Guide – May 2009

Salary Guide from Recent Placements and Offers
In case this assists anyone with determining salary levels, we have included recent offers into us:

1. Duty Solicitor, North London – £35,000
2. Duty Solicitor – Freelance – Central London – 66% Court Work, 75% Police Station
3. Duty Solicitor & Higher Court Advocate – Kent – £42,000
4. Family Solicitor – Panel Member – S East London – £38,000
5. Commercial Litigation/Property Solicitor – In House – South West – £45,000
6. Commercial Litigation Solicitor – Cardiff – £40,000 (3 years PQE) 
7. Conveyancing Solicitor – West London (consultancy) – 50% profit share.
8. Conveyancing Fee Earner – Cambridge – £16,000
9. Defendant Personal Injury Solicitor (Senior) – Ipswich – £50,000
10. Housing Solicitor – S East London – £32,000

Legal Job Market Summary 6th May 2009

April 2009 has not been a good month in the legal job market. Unsurprisingly really, and when I look back at previous years the month includes our lowest ever fee income levels (2003 – Iraq War + Easter), our lowest number of placements (April 2005) and our quietest month in job vacancies. In fact, it has been so quiet at times we have actually closed the Ten-Percent offices in the first week of April and sent everyone on annual leave for a week.

We have had 14 interviews, 5 job offers and 50 new vacancies since our last newsletter in March. Some of these interviews have been for consultancy posts, but the overwhelming majority have been for employed positions with salaried roles. Although a number of larger firms poked their heads above the parapet this month, most of them popped back down again quickly, and the majority of these positions have been with smaller practices. 

Whilst numbers of candidates are up and the number of job vacancies down, there does seem to be a different atmosphere taking off which will hopefully lead to a resurgence in the legal market over the next few months, albeit not to any great extremes. 

www.ten-percent.co.uk/weeklyreport.htm

www.ten-percent.co.uk

Legal Recruitment News Website launched – www.legal-recruitment.co.uk

Legal Recruitment News is now available on its’ own website, together with comments and much more to be added over the coming months. If you would like to advertise your firm’s services on the site free of charge for one month, please email us through a brief description and a web link to enquiries@legal-recruitment.co.uk, and we will post your details. At present the domain has a Google Page Ranking of 4, which for the uninitiated is very good news for your site on the Google Search Engine….

Legal Recruitment News

Welcome to Legal Recruitment News Online. Each month you can read our Newsletter with information on the current state of the legal jobs market, legal recruitment advice for employers, jobsearch techniques for employees, marketing advice, business advice, careers advice, CV and interview advice, issues in the workplace and much, much more..