Under the UK’s libel laws if one is served with a libel writ one must file your defence with the High Court but also with the Plaintiff or whichever lawyer is acting for them. And so this morning Brokerman Dan sent his 1200 page skeletal (i.e. there is more to come) defence over to Helen Skinner, the lawyer at uber-expensive City firm Pinsent Masons which is acting for Sefton Resources.
Oh dear. Ms Skinner replies that Pinsent Masons systems cannot cope with an XPS or text file (they are “not compatible with our systems”) and so can Dan reformat as a PDF or send over a hard copy? I doubt that he will. He is not obliged to. My super cheap laptop can open an XPS or text file and so with Partners at Pinsent Masons on a charge out rate of £750 an hour I suggest that they splash out £420 on a cheapo laptop ( with all licenses) at PC World.
This begs a further question? Will Ms Skinner bill Sefton for her time in sending a letter to Dan ‘fessing that her firm’s IT systems are not as capable as my £420 laptop (with full licenses) from PC World. Pinsent Masons normally charges for a minimum of ½ hour slots and so if Dan can keep this conversation going for another couple of emails then Skinner can trot down to PC World buy the laptop and effectively stiff Sefton’s lucky shareholders with the bill. Problem solved.
Do you think I should invoice Pinsent Masons for my consultancy on this matter? Er that will be ½ hour at £750 an hour – call it two snotty emails to Dan on behalf of Sefton. I cannot say fairer than that.
Of course Pinsent Masons also earns large fees acting as company secretary to Sefton. I shall be turning to this matter and claims made on the Sefton website next week. Watch this space.