Another quick problem question to sharpen your skills!

Fancy a quick problem question to sharpen your skills? This is taken directly from a forum with a few details changed to protect their identity. Imagining the poster was your client, do they have a viable claim for damages under the Law in England and Wales? If so, on what grounds?

Hello,

I hope you can help me with this issue.

A while back a couple moved to the street where I live. The street is a residential street with only residential private houses, where mainly families with children live. It looks like the man is running a business out of his property, which I think is rented. This in itself is not a problem. However his business seems to be about delivering fresh produce. Since he started this, we have large vans parking outside our windows slamming doors, very loudly whilst they unpack the fruit/veg, after these vans leave you then have the guy loading these onto his vans, once again slamming doors, talking loudly, laughing etc. This would not be a problem if it was 6:30 - 7am. The problem is this takes place from 5 in the morning at times even earlier. Like I said, this is not a business street /high street, this is a quiet residential road and he wakes up everyone. We all work and have children that go to school and the noise is affecting our sleep. 

What I need to find out is does he need a permit from the council to be able to run this sort of business and is the council likely to give him a permit to work this way on a residential road?

Also how do I find out who the landlord is so I can write to them about it. I have tried talking to him but he just ignores me and walks away, it will reach a point where I will have to contact someone about it.

Thank you

Please post your answers or even a rough draft in the comments below. And yes, this does count as revision. 

Fancy a quick Admin Law essay question practice?

Need some quick Administrative Law revision? Or just fancy a quick practice at an essay question following these helpful tips? Then have a go at this Administrative Law question:

Since January 2013 Stone Local Council (SLC) has seen the funding it receives from Central Government drastically reduced. As a consequence it is considering a programme to cut its spending. ‘The lean and mean cuts’, which will focus on reducing services that promote cultural activities such as libraries and theatres.

The relevant statutory provision is Section 3 of the (fictitious) Local Council Cultural Provisions Act 2009, which states:

“(1) The local council must provide access to culture for its residents in the form of libraries, theatres and museums, among other things.

(2) The Local Council may promote any cultural services that benefit its residents.”

SLC cancels the library bus that provides access to books for residents in surrounding villages.

To cut staffing costs further, SLC changes the opening hours of its libraries. They are no longer open in the afternoons or at the weekends.

SLC also decides to convert the only theatre in Stone into a multiplex cinema. It seeks to justify its decision to do so on the grounds that the members of the local dramatics association, who put on a number of plays per year, ‘cannot act’.

On looking into the particulars of the planned development of the multiplex cinema, CAS finds out that the daughter of the leader of SLC largely owns the company that has won the contract.

With reference to relevant case law, advise CAS of the most appropriate grounds for judicial review it might invoke. Provided by Keele University. 

Some helpful tips will be released via Twitter with an example essay being published tomorrow. If you leave your sample essay in the comments (or even a quick draft) it will also be published with full credit given. 

How to tackle a law essay/ problem question

In just a few short weeks many of us will be handing in our well-written superbly referenced essays, and for some it will be the last set of essays before it counts towards your final degree classification. Now that is a scary thought. 

But what if you still haven't got the hang of referencing or using Westlaw or just don't know where to start? Then follow this guide to help you tackle that tricky law essay question from beginning to end.

1. Read the question carefully. It is important you understand which areas of Law it is asking you about. 
2. Separate the different aspects of the question into manageable chunks, then write down some basic ideas of which areas of law may be used in each section. Make sure you understand every part of the question before moving on.
3. Make a plan. You may want to do a little bit of research in some of the areas you have written down first. A plan helps you to structure your argument and helps to focus your wider reading, don't forget you can always add to your plan later if you come across something in your research that you think will be relevant.
4. Research! Research the main points in your plan, remove anything you no longer think is relevant and add things you think are. You can search keywords on Westlaw to find relevant cases and journal articles or use the recommended textbooks for the readings (which often include references for further research).

Here are some things to consider while writing your essay:

• Write a first draft and then re-write a few days later. This gives you a fresh perspective on your essay and can help to highlight areas that may need some work. You may end up writing several drafts and this is fine.
• Remember the audience you are writing for- quite often you have to take the reader by the hand and guide them through the essay. This means explaining everything. However make sure you do not use abbreviations such as isn't, it should be is not. Use an impersonal style, like "This indicates that..." not "I think that...". 
• Acknowledge your sources with footnotes and a bibliography- you can miss some easy marks by not doing this. 
• Do not make assertions, you must always be able to justify and back up what you say. To do this you should provide a footnote with the reference to where you got this information from. Case law or statute are the most valued and preferred.
• Do not fall into the trap of just describing the points. The aim of the essay is to engage in a discussion with the reader and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of that area of the law. You are mainly interpreting for the reader the significance of what you have described.

Remember these points and you'll have your essay technique mastered in no time.

Help! I'm stuck with writing my essay (writers block)

With second semester assessments fast approaching, it can sometimes feel like you have writers block when writing an essay. Try this method to overcome it...

1. Start afresh. Either by getting a new piece of paper or starting a new document. I like to start a new paragraph when using word underneath what I have previously written and start from the beginning. Then, if you get stuck you can see if you can finish it off with something you have already written, but don't forget to delete the old stuff afterwards.
2. Write a key word or phrase at the top of your piece of paper or document. This can either be a key term that is relevant to the essay or some idea that you want to put in it such as:
• The aim of my essay is to...
• In the first paragraph, I am going to explain...
• The main argument that I want to make is...
• What is it that I'm trying to say?
3. Set yourself a short period of time (1-2 minutes is plenty) and start writing. Try not to worry about the order of you thoughts, the aim of this is to get your thoughts down on paper. 
4. Make sure you use the whole of the allocated time even if you feel not much of it is relevant to your essay- you can always edit these ideas later. If you still have some ideas left at the end of the time, keep writing!
5. When you have finished review what you have written. You should have produced something that captures your ideas in ordinary language but you can easily reword this into a more appropriate style for your essay. Some ideas may need a little reorganising but this is fine. 

Hopefully this method will have kick-started your essay writing and overcome your writers block. 

Taken from: Criminology skills by Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski. 

How to answer an essay question (Torts)

Here is a practice essay-style Tort question, and further down the page is the methods you should use to answer the question. An example answer to the essay question will be revealed soon, so please post yours in the comments below. 

"Dan, a 14 year old boy who was using his mobile phone, crossed the road without checking the traffic and was hit by a car driven by Kate. Kate was driving well over the speed limit. Pete saw the accident and because he had first aid training, he ran to assist Dan who was badly injured. Dan was taken to hospital. His mother, Maggie, was away working at the time of the accident and although she was told about it immediately, it took her six hours to reach the hospital. She fainted when she saw the horrific extent of Dan's injuries. Both Pete and Maggie have since been diagnosed as suffering from psychiatric illness as a result of their experiences."

And here's how you would go about tackling this essay...

1~ First you should analyse the facts

• Dan, a 14 year old boy who was using his mobile phone, crossed the road without checking, and was hit by a car driven by Kate.
• Kate was driving well over the speed limit
• Pete saw the accident and as he had first aid training, ran over to assist Dan who was badly injured. 
• Dan was taken to hospital.
• His mother, Maggie, was working away at the time of the accident and although she was tld about it immediately, it took her six hours to reach the hospital. She fainted when she saw the horrific extent of Dan's injuries. 
• Both Pete and Maggie have both been diagnosed as suffering from psychiatric illness as a result of their experiences. 

2~ Draw out the facts of the problem in a diagram if it helps you. Here's one I made for this problem...

3~ Establish who might have a claim and who might be sued. This can be done in a table under the headings "claimant" "defendant" and "other" or can be drawn out like below...

4~ Now it's time to identify the issues that may be involved and this will be crucial to whether or not they may be able to successfully claim. 

Dan's negligence? 14 year old: standard of care and duty to secondary victims

Kate's negligence: driving over the speed limit. Makes her liable for subsequent injuries? Breaks causation from Dan?

Pete ran to assist Dan: suffered psychiatric illness: primary victim as rescuer or secondary victim as a bystander?

Dan taken to hospital: physical injuries. Sue Kate but contributory negligence? 

Maggie arrived six hours later to hospital. She then fainted when she saw the horrific injuries: secondary victim? Immediate aftermath?

This question raises some issues of ambiguity, this is good because it gives you a chance to show off your knowledge of the law, by saying something along the lines of "Pete could be considered a rescuer as --- and so would be a primary victim according too ---, however Pete could also be considered a bystander according to --- however this would make him a secondary victim and unlikely to receive compensation as a result of his injuries."

5~ Rules of Law to be applied:

   Dan’s negligence?  14 year old: standard of care

   Standard of child: Mullins.

   Duty of care for secondary victims from self risk - Greatorex

—

—   Kate’s negligence: driving over limit. Makes her liable for subsequent injuries? Breaks causation from D?

   Ordinary driver standard: Nettleship. Is intervention outside risk created by D: Lodge?

—

—   Pete ran to assist Dan: suffered psychiatric illness: primary victim as rescuer or secondary as bystander?

   Rescuer unlike bystander has been owed duty: Chadwick/Bourhill. But White seems to require physical risk as in Page. Not meet Alcock criteria for 2ry

—

—    Dan taken to hospital: physical injuries. Sue K but contributory negligent?

   owed duty: Donoghue; damages reduced for contrib negligence:1945 Act Froom

—  Maggie six hours to hospital. Fainted when saw horrific injuries: secondary victim. Immediate aftermath?

   Proximity: McLoughlin two hours OK; Alcock eight hours too late;

   Seghal all part of same story?

6~ And now all that's left to do is put all the different parts of your answer together...

—D was probably negligent despite age standard in Mullins. Hence, contributory negligence to any claim against K (1945 Act, Froom) and might be liable to P and M if owes a duty and if chain of causation not broken.

—

—K owed D duty Donoghue  and in breach Nettleship, hence liable for his injuries. May be liable for psychiatric illness to P and M if owes a duty; negligence may break chain of causation from D’s negligence if outside risk Lodge; probably no break so D may also be liable, but Greatorex.

—

—P may be owed a duty if rescuer treated as primary victim following Chadwick but White interpretation of Chadwick suggests only if in zone of danger. If not primary victim, is a secondary victim but does not meet Alcock criteria, so treat as mere bystander not owed duty: Bourhill

—M may be owed duty if sufficient proximity to meet Alcock criteria as illustrated in Mcloughlin. Note Alcock held eight hours too long but Seghal puts emphasis on being part of same story. Note also Law Commission report suggest should be owed duty.

If you're struggling to remember all the different facts, here's an easy mnemonic to help you remember...