LBC Radio's phone-ins are usually very good on law and money. They have experts who appear regularly. It's always presented by Clive Bull on Mon to Thur evenings at 9.00 pm.Mondays it's the Money Hour. Tonight Mike Thomas of Debt Wizard deals with debt problems. He's an ex-cop, not a lawyer, but is very knowledgeable.http://www.debtwizard.com/Wed evenings it's the Legal Hour with barrister Daniel Barnet who is pretty impressive.LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation) is nationwide and easily available online etc.

brassnecked, Radio 5 Live is not DAB only. I don't have DAB but listened to the programme last night. Several top barristers chatted about their work, with Rinder putting to them the sort of questions often asked by the general public. In addition to asking the perennial favourite "how can a lawyer defend someone he knows is guilty" he put other very searching questions. E.g. a female barrister was asked how she could bear to defend paedophiles when she herself had just become a mother. Her reply was very moving.We also learned about a judge (not named) who got sacked after repeatedly being overturned on appeal. Now we know why LIPs nearly always lose!The series continues next Sunday evening. Meanwhile this first episode can be heard via the BBC website.

obiter, on my understanding Raising the Bar will be a serious, non-fictional programme along the lines of Radio Four's Law in Action. The programme is going to try to dispel popular beliefs about the law such as are found on TV programmes. Top judges will feature. They are surely not going to appear in anything substandard!

Raising the Bar, with criminal barrister Rob Rinder, starts on Sunday 18 October on Radio 5 Live at 9.00 pm.We are promised "high profile barristers and judges".The series aims to show how the law really works in practice.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06j0v6t

northwestbloke, I suggest you wait and see whether they apply to set aside or to appeal. The order should say how long they've got to do that.

Wakefield, the problem is that our adversarial (as opposed to the European inquisitorial) system of court proceedings is designed for lawyers. That is steadily changing.Court staff are meant to help with procedure. But, even the most experienced of them, tend to have limited knowledge. It's always best to check anything they tell you.

vengeancedemon, I agree that you've apparently had a serious of Assured Shorthold Tenancies, each 6 months being a fixed term.The fixed term can be longer than that (up to 3 years I believe) and it might be worth asking the landlord the next time the tenancy is renewed.

gideonssword, is the HA a registered charity? If so they are obliged to be transparent about their finances. You could get a copy of their latest accounts either from them or the Charity Commission.

frugal-mum, without doing a lot of re-reading of stuff I used to know well a few years ago I think it's the rent payment periods that is important. The leading case is Church Commissioner for England v Gisele Meya:Neutral Citation Number: [2006] EWCA Civ 821.But things are easier regarding wording since Spencer v Taylor [2013] EWCA Civ 1600.Since you are owed rent a judge is unlikely to be too critical I would have thought.Also, where there is more than one tenant liability under the tenancy agreement is often joint and several, which means you can recover any unpaid rent from another tenant.

Colin973, you will find the procedure in Civil Procedure Rules Part 73. You will also need to read the accompanying practice direction.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part73

happysmash, much depends on your backstory I would say. Are there other creditors. Was there a judgment against you. Was the settlement agreement approved by a court.The creditor seems to assume you are liable regardless. Was/is there something in the original contract to that effect.Did you appeal. If not, this might be the time to do it rather than opposing the petition under 6.19. In that event you could ask the court to adjourn hearing of the petition until you have challenged the order on which the petition is based.Also, how much are they claiming off you.I'm wondering if they ought to have started again with a fresh statutory demand.I don't have access to the Insolvency Rules today as only the original version is available online, so I'm really only stabbing in the dark. Procedure is important in your situation. Tomorrow morning I might visit a library where they subscribe to LexisNexis which I believe will have the updated Rules.

ThedaBara and Gannymede,Court fee remission and transcripts at public expense are two different things. The latter is decided by the judge at his/her discretion. The former is done by court staff according to the rules.

ThedaBara, OK so try to get the transcripts at public expense. I doubt, though, that it will be in your favour that more than one is sought! The judgments are the main thing to be transcribed as that is what you will be trying to appeal. A good judgment should tell the main elements of the story. You will still need to gather together all the papers sent and received in the case, in particular the orders. Once you do that you might find that a proper picture emerges.

ThedaBara, transcripts are expensive and it is unlikely that a future judge would be interested anyway. The main thing is what the orders say.I also suggest you write up a concise chronology of what has happened procedurally. You can post it here. It would also be immensely helpful to a judge as part of a skeleton argument or even just a letter.

needhelptds: this website might be useful:https://www.rla.org.uk/landlord/tenancy_deposits/

It is hard to see what other decision the judge could have come to regarding the dog. Returning it to your son would have been cruel as the dog would presumably have become attached to the purchaser.A charging order can be appealed, as could the original judgment. But 2 years is way too long for that. Your son is fortunate that no interest has been accruing on this small debt.

crunchynutter, in your position I would complain to the Advertising Standards Authority about the gym's misleading advertising.

jagpanther, I found an organization called the UK Deed Poll Service, which might help:http://www.deedpoll.org.uk/ObtainingCopyLostDeedPoll.html

Thedabara, you could complain to the Financial Ombudsman about your insurance company refusing to pay for your counterclaim. You would first need to establish if your counterclaim is within the time limit. It is always best to be represented as it is a professional risk for a judge to find in favour of a LIP when the other side is represented. (S/he could get overturned when the represented side appeal, which is humiliating for a judge and no help to his/her CV).

Section 83 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which came into force on 27 May, concerns lettings agents being transparent about their fees. I suggest you check to see if they comply:http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/83/enacted

ibbertybibberty, it is practically unheard of for one judge to find that another judge acted with bias. This is evident from the Locabail case you mention. Only if a judge had some kind of interest in a case would s/he be disqualified.If judges regularly got overturned because of bias then there would be many successful LIPs.

InformedSearcher, with an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (and most privately-rented tenancies are of this kind) there is no security of tenure once the fixed term is over. So, yes, the LL can just at whim evict people. He has to give the required notice and comply with other technicalities. But he need give no reason for kicking a tenant out. All he has to do is issue a correctly-worded section 21 notice (Housing Act 1988) and, if the tenant does not depart, use the Accelerated Possession Procedure to obtain a possession order. A judge can decide the matter without a hearing, i.e. make a possession order, though there is normally a right to apply back to set it aside. The tenant needs a proper defence though and there are only one or two. Even if the tenant succeeds the LL has a right of possession and can just start all over again.That there is no security of tenure is hard on families, elderly, disabled etc. The law is aimed to encourage LLs to rent out properties. LLs would not do so if they felt they might get lumbered with a tenant they can't remove.

Gary, you should not need both a guarantor and 6 months payment up front. Steve__M is right. Paying that amount up front is a risk anyway.

Mikeymack2002, statute law is constantly being amended for all sorts of reasons: the need to incorporate EU law, changes to other statutes and judicial decisions. In the case of the latter, governments are always looking to see how a law works out in practice i.e. in the courts. If they don't like its effects or believe that the highest judges have misinterpreted it they make amendments accordingly. There is a constant interaction between the Ministry of Justice and case law. That is what's presently happening as regards landlord and tenant law.The constant stream of amendments is presumably why it is so hard to find up to date statute law. Legislation.gov.uk is meant to be up to date but never is, although it's speedy in posting new law. LexisNexis manages it superbly i.e. as quickly as is humanly possible. I don't know how they do it. But it's a subscription service.The entire Deregulation Act might require many changes to other legislation. But only a part of it refers to L and T. They are specific changes with very little ripple effect in my view. But it all still takes some reading and absorbing.The beauty of LexisNexis is that they write up the sections of a statute complete with amendments in hard brackets. At the end of a section there are notes relating to each sub-section which tell you when the said sub-section came or comes into force. They also give any relevant statutory instruments. They make it all as accessible as it can possibly be.

I've read up this area for my own purposes but it would take a very long post to explain it all, and, although I've studied and had experience of the law, I am not a lawyer.No doubt articles will appear setting out the changes. The New Law Journal and Estates Gazette are both very good and will probably cover it.It's actually quite complicated because different provisions come in at different times and some are retrospective and some not. (My bible is the LexisNexis database which sets it all out very clearly.)Just three points: Firstly, from 1 Oct a s21 notice will only be valid for 6 months.Secondly there will be penalties if a LL does not supply an Energy Performance Certificate.Thirdly a LL will not be able to serve a s21 notice very early but it depends on whether it is an original or replacement tenancy.