In the first part of our consumer law update, we examined the EU proposals to simplify and strengthen the rights of consumers. In this article, we will consider the more extensive UK proposals set out by the Government’s White Paper called“A Better Deal for Consumers – Delivering Real Help Now and Change for the Future”.

At the moment, the law reforms mainly focus on helping consumers avoid credit and online scams. This is part of a wider plan to deal with sharper business practice. There will also be reforms of the current laws on misrepresentation, making it easier for a consumer to take action if they feel they have been misled.  The key proposals include:

1. Appointment of a New Consumer Advocate

When we’re a customer in a shop or a client of a company, we like help, respect, understanding, satisfaction, value for money, action, friendly service … need I go on? So whether you’re dealing with a colleague’s or a multimillion-pound client’s request, you will have to satisfy these four basic needs: the need to be understood, the need to feel welcome, the need to feel important and the need for a comfortable environment.

So here are the top ten tips to help you meet those needs and guarantee that your clients remain your clients:

Workloads in a legal office are demanding at all levels. How we manage these will influence how we perform as well as how we feel.

There is a well-established principle of dividing what is important from what is urgent and of spending as much time as possible on things which are important and spending no or minimal time on things which are not important (urgent or not).

Every year businesses needlessly waste thousands of reams of paper, burn excess electricity and literally flush resources down the drain. During the past two years the Institute has been working towards streamlining its systems, not only to create more efficiency but also to stop overusing resources. We all have a responsibility to be aware of these issues and reduce our impact where we can.

The Paperless Office

We are all used to a bit of banter in the office, but it becomes a completely different matter when banter turns into something as serious as bullying. Bullying and harassment in the workplace have always been issues that have been played down to a certain extent, but recent studies by work unions have indicated that instances have almost doubled over the past ten years.

Motivation is directed by positive emotion. Motivation propels us towards something rather than holding us back.

If there is a positive expectation for the outcome of what we are doing, then that expectation will motivate us towards it.

If we experience anxiety, anger or other negative expectations, then this will maintain and increase stress levels, which, if unchecked, will in turn interfere with the positive elements of the expectation, often by distorting or deleting those positive elements.

What is it we want to achieve? Is it motivation we lack when feeling lacklustre about a Monday morning or a particular task? Or is it something else? Are we tired? What is going on in the rest of our lives?

We celebrate our twentieth anniversary with pride, as we have become recognised as the leading organisation in our field. ILSPA not only offers accredited and recognised qualifications but also provides professional recognition for our Members and their ongoing development, together with support, advice and career guidance for trainee and experienced Legal Secretaries throughout the UK and overseas.

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs was formed in 1990 by a group of like-minded legal professionals to promote the excellence and professional recognition of Legal Secretaries and PAs. We initially existed to assist legal practices with their main support staff functions by helping maintain and improve services to their clients through the expertise and diligence of a well-informed and commercially aware secretariat.

It is one of the unfortunate facts of life that when a deep recession strikes our economy, there are always going to be unfortunate homeowners who lose their abodes through the distressing process known as repossession. The current recession has not proven to be any different and indeed the figures that recently have been announced for repossessions last year have been even more shocking than previously anticipated.

During 2009 there were 46,000 repossessions across the country and what is even more worrying, this figure is predicted to rise to a shocking and unforgivable 53,000 during 2010. Last year’s figure was the highest recorded in fourteen years and there are many organisations calling for action by the Government to try and reduce this number.

You may be surprised to learn that 60% of people rate fear of public presentations even above the fear of death. This comes from an ancient fear of ostracism from the tribe, abandonment and vulnerability, which remains part of our inheritance in the emotional brain. The emotional (subconscious) part of our brain evolved for life in the wild, whereas our intellectual (conscious) brain evolved much later. Fear produces stress and it triggers the fight or flight response; danger requires a physical response, not an intellectual one. That response is only turned off when we take physical action – fighting or fleeing – or if we become skilled at reducing stress by becoming calm. Excess stress inhibits access to our intellectual and rational brain.

We are problem-solving animals. Our brains are designed to find solutions to enhance our life. This applies as much to practical problems of which we are very much consciously aware – such as how to deal with that difficult matter, colleague or client – as it does to problems that need addressing in one or more areas of our lives of which we are often only subconsciously aware – a nagging thought, perhaps, that something is not really quite right.