My 85-year-old father is quite convinced that we are indeed returning to the glory days when it comes to services. Our groceries and appliances are once again delivered to us at home. High street shops, such as Uniqlo, offer alteration services, and although one no longer has to queue at the docks for a day’s pay, the latest apps bring handymen, masseuses, taxi drivers and beauticians ringing to your phone pitching for work. So perhaps our mod cons are not all that “mod” after all.
This sprang to mind again this week when our Managing Partner, Alex Deal, who is determined to go green and cut down on paper wastage (which he has successfully done by 87% in the last year, an impressive stat with our current court system), quoted the Lord Chancellor’s 16th century response to a defence, where a Richard Mylward, who was accused of using 120 sheets of paper for replication, when he need only have used sixteen (and they say lawyers are verbose!) was ordered to be arrested and taken to Westminster Hall. There, they cut a hole in his replication, putting his head through it (printed side out for the maximum effect, of course) and paraded him “bare-headed and bare-faced” past the Bars of all three courts of Westminster Hall before taking him back to the Fleet and holding him prisoner pending payment of various fines.
Perhaps it is a good thing not all practices are reverting back to those of old, but what a fabulous incentive not to waste paper.
Contact Penny Dewar, our marketing executive, today for more information on our paper usage or lack thereof.
Note: This article is not legal advice; it provides information of general interest about current legal issues.