Under s.24A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (as amended by the Serious Organised Crime Act 2005), it states that a member of the public may perform a citizen’s arrest on a person who is expected to be in the middle of committing an indictable offence, or when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person is about to commit such an offence, or when the person has already done so.

In other words, an individual member of the public can only arrest another person if they have committed an offence that would be deemed as serious. Indictable offences are those that would be passed on to the Crown Court for trial by jury, as the Magistrates’ Court would not have the power to try such a crime.

Last month saw the launch of the ILSPA Legal Secretary Jobs Board, a niche jobs board that aims to provide the most comprehensive listing of Legal Secretary jobs in the UK. The board is feature packed and is open to both Members of the Institute as well as the general public. In its first weeks the board is already attracting many visitors and its usefulness will only grow as it becomes more widely known amongst job seekers and employers alike.

Here is a quick guide to some of the useful features available on the board:

Personal Profile and CV
 

Every regular windows user will be familiar with the combination of keys: CTRL+ALT+DEL. This magic combination is used to lock the screen, log in or more often than not force an unresponsive application to close. Other commonly used key combos are CTRL+C and CTRL+V for copying and pasting or F5 to refresh a page in your Internet browser. These common shortcuts are incredibly useful and improve productivity by making tasks that would usually require some pointing and clicking possible with only a few keystrokes.

These are not the only key combos around that can improve your productivity and make your working day a few minutes shorter; in fact there are a lot more. Here are some of the more useful ones:

Whether you have secured a new job or have been working at the same company for some time, understanding how you can make a good impression will be of great benefit to you.  Your new position could be the start of a fantastic new career, or if you have been feeling unenthusiastic in your current role, you still have the chance to change your perspective and impress your employers.  Your role affects the success of the company, so take the time to think about your contribution.

Information Resources

A final update before the new Supreme Court replaces the House of Lords

On 30 July the current highest Court in the land, the House of Lords, made its last decision in the Debbie Purdy case. The Court heard Mrs Purdy’s plea for clarity in the law on assisted suicide. Because of the Law Lords’ decision, new guidelines will be published on 23 September regarding the prosecution of people who help others to commit suicide. Following this case the Law Lords have now passed into history. From October the new Supreme Court will make decisions on difficult areas of law. The change has been justified as a necessary modernisation, but there is some concern that this new Court may use its more extensive powers to oppose the will of Parliament.

I wish to start by commending The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs for setting up this high professional standard. The course is expertly structured and the materials intelligently written to encourage practical knowledge acquisition. Unlike normal text books, one cannot excel in this course without a painstaking and thorough study of the comprehensive pack, stemming from the way it is deliberately and/or consciously structured, a strategy I strongly believe was aimed at giving the Legal Secretary and PA quality training worth its weight in gold. The course is obviously tasking but very interesting. I said tasking because the achievement test sessions are technically prepared and one just has to unavoidably read each unit over and over again to get there. Patience! Patience!

Annette Goss, Lorraine Richardson and Michael Taylor.  Published by The Law Society.  ISBN-13: 978-1-85328-938-5.

This is an excellent book written by a District Land Registrar, a practicing Solicitor and an Assistant District Land Registrar, respectively.

It was specifically written to provide Legal Secretaries and support staff in Solicitor’s offices with practical information and guidance in the completion of conveyancing forms and other conveyancing documents, which it does clearly and concisely.  One of the authors, apart from being a practicing Solicitor, has a wealth of legal training experience, and this shows in the way in which the book takes each part of each form and document in turn and shows exactly how it should be completed.

As we are currently experiencing one of the worst recessions for many years, most companies are finding it hard to deal with the everyday decisions and financial hardship that seem to be part and package of these times. Much of the financial hardship appears to be as a result of other companies encountering difficulties over settling their bills, and this can even lead to the companies becoming insolvent. In turn, companies who had released goods to these companies on credit terms find that they are out of pocket when the company becomes insolvent.

A voice on the telephone recently asked me, "Are you his Secretary, or do you prefer to be called his Administrative Assistant?" I told him, "I am his Secretary and very proud of it." You could hear the relief in his voice as he replied, "Thank goodness I can deal with a real person, the one who really runs things and I don't have to deal with a prima donna who takes offence at the least little thing!" Now, I'm serious. This really happened. And I think he voiced a common feeling, because people know that a Secretary, especially a Legal Secretary, is close to the boss, can be trusted with information, and will handle all matters correctly. (But we know who really runs things and it's not the Secretary.)

The role of the Legal Secretary used to be seen as a humble position, and women were first employed in offices during the First World War when the men went off to fight.  It was then that people started to realise that women were capable of working efficiently and resourcefully within the secretarial role, and when the war finished, many women carried on in this line of work.  However, in those days it was rare for women to work until retirement, as they usually gave up their jobs to get married or have children.