Australia-bound

Some half a year ago I wrote about the reasons for becoming a personal injury lawyer. Among them I cited the ability to right wrongs, the fact that PI law immerses its practitioners in the real world, and the constant challenges of this fast-evolving sector.

Given that I'm writing this blog about to depart for Australia you might think that regular travel is another reason to become a PI lawyer. I admit, as I'm about to board a plane to Australia, that lately I've seen a fair bit of the world. However, it’s not always like this – far from it, in fact. And this trip, to the national conference of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, will be the last for a while.

This time round, I'm travelling to Glenelg, in South Australia. This is a suburb of Adelaide and yes, I reckon that the weather will probably be better there than in Britain. But from tomorrow I’ll be wrapped up in the conference and preparing for my session at 4.45pm on Saturday. I'm speaking then about PI and litigation reform in the UK. This, of course, is a topic close to my heart - not least as LASPO enters its home straight.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Act will become law on 1 April 2013. I will be speaking to conference attendees about the deficiencies in LASPO and ancillary changes, which I have often mentioned on this blog.

While in Australia I'm hoping to meet with various lawyers after the conference, by way of gleaning as much information about the legal profession and PI sector there as possible. In particular, I hope to discover more about the way in which outside ownership of law firms - pioneered in Australia - has panned out.

I’ll write about my trip as soon as I can. Please look out for the resumption of this blog in due course.