Our monthly snapshot of what goes on here at McHale & Co.

Friday 30th September saw Andrew McHale & Michael Muldoon involved in the final touches for our merger with Waldron & Schofield Solicitors which officially takes place tomorrow.

There were the usual conveyancing completions, Friday remaining the day when most people want to move house. In amongst the residential transactions carried out by Nicola Nolan and Nick Ball was a Commercial Lease completed by David Burke.

Tom Curle in the Sports Department was taking delivery of a pair of football boots for a very promising young prospect who is playing tomorrow for Manchester City Youth Team. A few potential loan moves were also being discussed between Tom and Darren Bossons.

In the Personal Injury department Andrew Walker prepared and delivered a Trial Bundle to Court for a final hearing next week. Afterwards the insurers on the other side finally came to their senses and made an offer to settle that was accepted and the case was settled to the client’s great satisfaction. Marta Gzelak was dealing with a number of Polish clients for whom we are acting and was talking to a client for whom we have already secured a £100k prosthetic hand. He is coming back to England so we can progress his case further.

Our favourite road traffic barrister Nick Flanagan was briefed to attend Court on Monday for a client by Michael French. Paul Fitton worked on reviewing video evidence on behalf of a private client accused of Rape in a case that has attracted media interest.

Our Financial Irregularity Department continued to progress the many cases that we have in Court against Financial Institutions who mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance to the public. Matthew Kelly enjoyed his last day as a trainee solicitor and looked forward to his qualification on Monday (when the really hard work starts!).

Family Law matters were progressed and we tried to sort out last minute contact issues for a client before the weekend. Thankfully matters were agreed with the other side to the client’s relief.

Another completely untypical “typical day” in the life of McHale & Co!

Spotkanie Ligi Europy w październiku 2010, w którym Lech Poznań mierzył się na wyjeździe z Manchesterem City, na długo zapadnie w pamięci brytyjskich kibiców. Głównie za sprawą polskich fanów, którzy zaszokowali Anglię nietypowym sposobem dopingu. Około 6 tysięcy polskich kibiców przybyło na mecz i pokazało Anglikom jak wspierać graczy.

'To jest coś niesamowitego. Jakbym słuchał plutonu amerykańskich marines podczas szkolenia. Manchester może i dominuje na boisku, ale na trybunach zwycięzcami są fani Lecha' - to słowa Petera Fergusona.

Po bramce dla Lecha, fani "Kolejorza" odwrócili się plecami do murawy, chwycili za barki i rytmicznie podskakując i śpiewając celebrowali strzelonego gola. Zgromadzonym na stadionie widzom spodobało się to tak bardzo, że postanowili na stałe włączyć to do swego kibicowskiego repertuaru. Okrzyk "Let's all do the Poznan" ("Zróbmy wszyscy Poznań") już nie raz zachęcał publikę do podobnego, żywego reagowania po bramkach dla 'niebieskich'. Możemy być dumi z polskich kibiców, którzy dają przykład poza granicami Polski. Na zdjęciu fani Manchester City kopiują styl poznaniaków na Barclays Premier League meczu w Fulham.

Head of our Employment dept, Paul Harris-Stelfox, is drafting contracts of employment for teaching staff and finance officer, application forms for a teaching appointment, personnel records documents, all for a recently established Academy.

Michael French was with a 21 year old up on a drink drive charge in Trafford Magistrates. He received a 12 month disqualification, fines totaling £300. The bench gave have the option of the drink awareness course which the client availed of. Our Barrister Nick Flannagan represented the case in Court. Client’s anxious mother was also in attendance. They were happy with the outcome and glad that they now have closure on the situation.

Michael Muldoon was chasing the Court of Appeal for a judgment in the Country’s leading PPI case-it should be with us in a couple of weeks.

Nina Mahaffy from the Personal Injury Department is taking instructions from a new CICA client, and negotiating damages for a client who broke her neck in a car accident. Andrew Walker was drafting a witness statement for another accident victim.

Andrew McHale was working on the Firms renewal of its Professional Indemnity Insurance for next year-one of many administrative tasks that requires the input of senior management and stops them earning fees!

Also doing some “behind the scenes” work was Marta Grzelak who was preparing a new website to run in Poland in order to assist the Polish companies pursuing business activities in England.

In Conveyancing Nicola Nolan was completing the purchase of a property and was struggling to get hold of the client in the morning because he was training with the England Football team.

Meanwhile in Sports, Darren Bossons completed a deal to take Emile Sinclair to Peterborough FC. Tom Curle worked on some potential deals on transfer deadline day that frustratingly didn’t come off.

All in a days work here at McHale & Co!

Over the past few years farmers across Britain have been bombarded with piece after piece of red tape which has either been generated from within our own shores at Westminster or from further afield through our MEPs in Brussels.

After generations of performing everyday tasks in a standard fashion such as spraying crops, spreading manure and planting crops the European Union, most notably, has over recent years began to instruct farmers native to their own lands about how to perform these duties. Foreign ministers have constructed many legal obstacles, barriers and hoops for farmers to jump over, under and through thus adding much, and arguably unnecessary expense, to an industry that itself is not particularly thriving in the current economic climate.

One of the most recent issues to arise is the implementation of the European Commission Nitrates Directive which came into force on 1st January 2009 with area by area of the country being engulfed by its overarching rules and regulations. Its single most striking consequence is the prevention of farms in designated Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) from spreading nitrogen based manures, fertilisers and pesticides between certain months of the year.

The logic in this would seem very reasonable and sound as quite rightly man-made products such as sprays should indeed be prevented from contaminating nearby water supplies. However, when it is considered that natural cow slurry is one of the substances regulated under the NVZ it is arguable that EU legislation has gone slightly over board considering for many decades such practices have gone on unnoticed without any interruption and without any problems. Depending on a farm’s location and soil type, slurry is now not permitted to be spread for up to 6 months of a calendar year. This has consequently led to many farmers shutting down dairies, diversifying from keeping store cattle and for many others it has meant spending tens of thousands of pounds to erect new slurry stores and purchase new spreading equipment in order to comply with this new directive which will apply to all NVZ affected farms by 1st January 2012 with no exceptions permitted.

This move has been welcomed by many but loathed by those losing out as a result. There will no doubt be further regulations to follow.