Author: Catherine Bates

One of the more interesting aspects of my job involves the conversations I have with people about their understanding of legal provisions, and watching the mist clear when they realise that something they thought was really complicated is actually quite simple.  Or the realisation that something that they’ve been doing for years is actually not […]

  Judgements are a big part of my life. I judge what the weather is going to be like in the morning (and whether I can trust the weather forecast) before I decide what I’m going to wear for the day. I judge what mood my teenage son is going to be in – is […]

    I know that everyone is making jokes about our esteemed leader at the moment, and some of them are actually quite funny, but I’ve got a different bone to pick with him, or his staff.  I don’t think they can count too well. Apparently, the Government has reported that Employment Tribunal proceedings are […]

  In the same way that first impressions last, the opening line of a letter can have a lasting impression on the reader, and not always for the right reason.  For example, if you receive an e mail from someone you don’t know and it starts with “My dearest Stephanie” you’d probably assume they want […]

  I’m a great lover of famous sayings. Discretion is the better part of valour Necessity is the mother of all inventions, Or how about my latest favourite Assumption is the mother of all F@*k ups. In all areas of life, it’s easy to make assumptions and some are absolutely fine. I assume that Southampton […]

Christmas Games Years ago, Christmas used to be a lot more fun. I don’t just mean when I was a kid, because as a child, other than Christmas presents, December only really stuck out as being rather cold and sometimes snowy. But as a young adult, Christmas was an endless round of parties and excuses […]

    And I don’t just mean the fear of being run over by a marauding reindeer or burning the turkey. Christmas is fraught with traps and holes, waiting to catch out the unwary. Mistletoe, for example, is dangerous not just because it is toxic (did you know that?) although I’ve never yet seen anyone […]

This may surprise you!     Solicitors sometimes get it wrong! Actually, that shouldn’t really surprise you, because if solicitors never got it wrong, we’d never end up in court (because the solicitors on each side would agree on what the answer was) and we’d never need the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court, […]

  Would you ever buy tickets for the cinema and then choose to only see half the film?  Well I suppose you might if it’s a very scary film and you’re hiding behind your seat half the time, but on the whole, people want to see it all.  Beginning, middle and end. You might be […]

I’m very much a glass half full kind of person. Actually, I’m a “it’s irrelevant how full or empty the glass is, because it’s always refillable”.  Which I think proves my point even more namely that I am, essentially, a very positive person, and if you saw how badly my football team were doing at […]