Put a watch on the borders…

Be afraid…be very afraid….I’m being allowed to leave the country!

And not only am I being allowed out, but I’m going in the guise of a proper professional!
I’m going all the way to Australia, to attend the ALLA and NZLLA joint conference in Melbourne, thanks to some fabulous and generous bursaries from the lovely BIALL and SLLG, yay!
It’s kind of worrying when you look at a conference programme and think “ohhhh, I’d really like to go to that!”. I’m concerned that it may be a sign of becoming grown up. But, never fear, the business cards I’ve had made up will soon put paid to any such ideas in the people I meet, oh yes indeedy!
It is actually ever so slightly terrifying: I know no-one at the conference, my hotel booking’s gone a bit wonky already, and I arrive at 1am in the morning, after waaaaay too many hours of travelling…thankfully I’ve scheduled in a bit of recovery time, otherwise I’d be sporting the Zombie Librarian look.
Actually, maybe that’s the in-look in Australia at the moment, I shall have to find out.
I have also been told to bring back a kangaroo, koala, wombat, and duck-billed platypus….these may be tall orders. Although I am meeting up with a marine biologist friend while I’m there, wonder if he can pull some strings on the platypus front?

Warning: may include Scots law material. Somewhere.

Ah, FindLaw UK, a shiny new website, for general public access to law, and solicitors. Sounds like a good thing, and in principle, it is.

But I have to go back to a traditional moan: Scots law differs in many areas from English/Welsh law. The Findlaw UK website almost exclusively refers to E/W law, but doesn’t actually state this. There are a few references to where there are differences, but these can be deep in the articles e.g the core section on divorce procedure refers entirely to E/W law, with only a related article alongside outlining that there are different procedures in different jurisdictions.

The Personal Injury section refers you to the website of Community Legal Advice, which offers “free, confidential and independent legal advice for resident of England and Wales”.

Buying and Selling Property is purely about E/W law, I can’t find even a hint of the Scottish differences. Bankruptcy? Alcohol and Crime? Dispute Resolution Law? Criminal Law? Litigation? All English/Welsh, with links to national agencies for those topics.

Only the Law and Government section discusses in any depth the jurisdictional issues, including a Devolution section, so they do know that there are differences. But there’s no link from this core information to the subject guidance sections. The few references to Scots law are also often lifted from DirectGov, who refer to the Scottish Government as the Scottish Executive, but FindLaw UK’s own material refer to it as the Scottish Government: using the two terms is confusing for those who don’t know the difference between the old and new terms for the body.

Of course, a lot of these areas of law I don’t regularly work in, so can’t be sure how accurate the site is in those, but the ones I do know about seem to generally have no signing or flagging of the jurisdiction of the content, which, if you’re aiming a site at the general public, is not a great plan.

So FindLaw UK, if you’re going to market yourself as being able to provide “legal information, access to quality solicitors and a community to help you make the best legal decisions”, then please, remember to actually do that. Nobody can make their best legal decision if the information they’re basing it on relates to the law of another country.

I’m not quite sure


Why anyone would think that allowing the Scottish Government to be involved in the running of the National Library of Scotland would be a good idea?

Seriously?
How exactly could putting a sprawling body with no particular expertise in managing Scottish heritage in charge of the NLS and NMS be a better idea than having those areas managed by experts and professionals in the field, with massive amounts of experience and understanding?
*Facepalm*