Tassells Solicitors

Tassells to host FREE seminars in Law for Small Businesses

Tassells Solicitors will be running, by popular demand, a FREE course in Law for Small Businesses. The course will cover Employment, Leases and Contract Law. The first session will be held in our offices commencing on Wednesday 20th March at 6pm followed by two further sessions on 24th April and 22nd May. We will give you a basic knowledge of these relevant areas and will also have Question and Answer sessions afterwards over a glass of wine! We’ll try and make it fun! Please contact Susan Anderson on 01795 533337 or email me at e-mail: susananderson@tassells-solicitors.co.uk to book your place. Places will be limited and are on a first come first served basis. It will also be an excellent networking opportunity.

Tassells in Faversham, Kent recently took part in Will Aid and we are delighted to announce that we have raised over £3,500 for the nine Will Aid charities.

Will Aid is the UK’s leading charity will-writing scheme. It offers everyone the opportunity to make or update their Will in return for a donation to help people in need in the UK and all over the world. This money is shared by nine well-known UK charities: ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Christian Aid, NSPCC, Save the Children, Sightsavers, SCIAF (Scotland) and Trocaire (Northern Ireland).

As part of the Will Aid campaign we drew up basic Wills for local people without charging our usual fee. In return for this service, the clients made a donation to Will Aid.

We had a very busy and successful campaign and wrote over 30 Wills for local people, giving their families the security of a properly drafted Will as well as the opportunity to support popular charities.

We really enjoyed meeting many new local clients and would like to thank those who took part and donated so generously in order to make our fundraising efforts such a success.

We are proud that Tassells were involved. The money we have raised will be added to the nationwide total, currently standing at £1.5m, which will be put to work to make a real and lasting difference to vulnerable children, families and older people in the UK and around the world.

The scheme runs again in November and we look forward to meeting more new clients in need of a Will and who would like the added benefit of supporting charities at the same time.

Tassells are pleased to now offer a fixed fee service for obtaining a Grant of Probate. Please see our Probate page for more information.

The Justice Minister Chris Grayling MP has as recently announced plans to restrict the use of the remedy of judicial review. It is the case that the number of judicial review cases has increased greatly over the last 40 years and its use has sometimes proved controversial, and the great majority of applications fail. The Minister’s criticisms, however, miss the point in important ways. I am frequently consulted by individuals and businesses who complain that they have suffered at the hands of central government, local government, or some other public body. In almost every case I have to tell them that the body concerned cannot be held accountable in the courts unless there is a decision which could be the subject of a judicial review.

The fact is that public bodies have a great deal of power, usually conferred on them by Acts of Parliament. These powers are not always exercised wisely or fairly but in most cases the only hope of preventing or reversing a bad decision is by making an application to the High Court for a judicial review. Public bodies resent having their plans held up, and cite for example the fact that every time a major scheme involving the development of an airport is announced complex judicial reviews follow which can take years to resolve. Whether or not these cases are worthy of criticism, for every bad example there will be others, which work to the benefit not only of the individuals concerned but also of society. Virgin Rail’s challenge to the award of the West Coast franchise to a competitor was an example of a judicial review which led to the Government acknowledging that their decision making had been hopelessly flawed: the result is no doubt extremely disruptive, but it might lead to a better decision in the future as well as giving Virgin Rail another chance to get what they wanted.

It is right to say that many applications fail, but this is partly because the body being challenged is obliged to explain itself fully and coherently in a way which it may have failed to do before the court process began. The threat of having to explain yourself to a judge is useful reminder of the need to act within the powers given and to make sensible decisions, and court cases can do more for transparency that any departmental policy extolling ‘open government’.

If there really are numerous unmeritorious judicial review applications being pursued, then there are ways of preventing court processes being abused. Many commentators think that one of the problems with judicial review is not that there are too many cases, but there are too few suitably qualified Judges available to filter out the bad ones and give proper attention to those which have merit.

I can only hope that the Minister’s frustration with what he seems to regard as an unnecessary brake on policy initiative does not translate into a successful attack on fundamentally important constitutional principle, which should ensure that public bodies are always held accountable to the rule of law, and there is an accessible means of ensuring this happens.

James Matthews

Tassells are pleased to confirm that their application to remain part of the CQS has been successful.

CQS was created by the Law Society to encourage best practice amongst solicitors firms who carry out residential conveyancing. It is designed to give buyers, sellers and lenders confidence in their dealings with an accredited firm.

Tassells was one of the first firms to obtain CQS accreditation. This involved the rigorous examination of our management structure and an in-depth investigation of our personnel. CQS member firms are required to promise to carry out work to the highest standards and to demonstrate absolute financial and professional integrity. For this reason Banks and Building Societies now look to CQS accreditation when appointing firms to carry out mortgage work on their behalf.

An accredited firm must undertake to maintain the required standard at all times and ensure that all its conveyancing lawyers complete compulsory training. The firm must also submit itself to detailed scrutiny by the Law Society once a year as part of the re-accreditation process. This is the process which has been successfully completed.