The key to change

IN BRIEF • Four out of five people facing eviction may receive no legal help. • A “one-stop” advice shop should be available before the hearing. • There needs to be more “eye-catching” information to encourage defendants to attend court. Following our report on the housing possession process which raised questions concerning whether there is effective access to justice (see “Losing a home”, NLJ, 20 June 2014, p 16), we held a seminar to discuss the issues raised. Key actors involved in the possession process—judges, housing advisers, claimant representatives, policy makers, court administrators—imagined how the process might be improved. There were two key themes that emerged. The first focused around the low levels of defendant participation in possession cases: notwithstanding the fact that the home is under threat, many defendants do not receive legal advice and do not actively participate in the court process. This matters not only because of the importance of participation to procedural justice, but also because of its impact on outcome. Research suggests that there is a relationship between attendance and more favourable decisions to the defendant. The second area of interest was on eviction by private landlords. This is highly topical as the government has established a working party “to examine proposals to speed up the process of evicting during a tenancy tenants who do not pay rent promptly or fail to meet other contractual obligations”

Losing a home : does the current housing possession process provide effective access to justice?

In brief: • There is a lack of joined up thinking within the housing possession process. • The amount of time and resources devoted to these cases fails to recognise the importance that occupiers attach to the prospect of losing a home, as well as the wider social and economic implications of eviction. • A working group has been set up in the Departments for Communities and Local Government to look into how the eviction process can be speeded up, but more radical reform could be needed

The empirical approach to research in property law

This article offers an account of the unique characteristics, challenges and benefits of empirical legal research. The authors explain that empirical legal research involves the collection and observation of data through a variety of research techniques, such as interviews, observation and surveys, and how it difers from some of its close neighbours, in particular socio-legal research. While the challenges posed by empirical legal research are acknowledged, this article argues that it enriches property law scholarship by enabling researchers to weave together the law learned in books with the law understood and applied in practice

Attachment, caregiving and coping in daughters caring for their mothers with dementia

Caring for a relative with dementia is thought to be one of the most stressful and disruptive life events in the family life cycle (Zarit and Edwards, 1996). The effects of caring for a relative with dementia are well documented, with some caregivers coping well and others developing psychological difficulties (Zarit and Edwards, 1996). However, little is known about the risk and protective factors involved for individual caregivers. Caring for a mother with dementia is a task primarily undertaken by daughters (Stone and Kemper, 1989). Past research has shown that the kin relationship between caregiver and care recipient affects the experience of family caregiving (Li, Seltzer and Greenberg, 1999). This study set out to investigate whether the quality of the relationship between daughters and mothers throughout the life span influences how daughters cope with caring for their mothers when they develop dementia. As part of a larger study, thirty one daughters were interviewed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI: George, Kaplan and Main, 1996). The interviews were rated according to Main and Goldwyn's (1994) standardized classification system. Daughters' reflective functioning was also rated using the Reflective Functioning Scale (Fonagy, Target, Steele, and Steele, 1998). The participants completed a series of self report questionnaire measures including the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (Hughes Berg, Danziger, Coben, and Martin, 1982), the Relative Stress Scale (RSS: Greene, Smith and Timbury, 1982), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28: Goldberg, 1978) and the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ: Sarason, Sarason, Shearin and Pierce, 1987). Additionally, some of the daughter caregivers were asked how they understood their relationship with their mother to have influenced their caring role and data from the responses to these questions was analysed qualitatively. It was predicted that daughters with secure attachment histories would be less psychologically distressed as measured by the RSS and GHQ-28 than daughter caregivers with insecure attachment histories. Using overall coherence as an indicator of attachment security, a relationship between overall coherence and psychological distress was not found. It was also predicted that high reflective functioning would serve as a protective factor from psychological distress. Conversely, it was found that daughters with higher reflective functioning scores were more psychologically distressed than daughter caregivers with lower reflective functioning scores. The qualitative analysis revealed four clusters of themes. These were change and loss, motivational influences, coping and support and caring within the context of the wider care system. The limitations of the research design, the clinical implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed

Mortgage possession at a crossroads: which way should we turn?

The unification of the regulation of first and second mortgages in 2016 has raised the question as to the appropriate route for possession claims: is it the Administration of Justice Act 1970 or the Consumer Credit Act 1974? In making the case for the latter, this article evidences the disparity in the resilience experienced by the parties and the potential for the CCA 1974 to offer an effective response to it

Research-based clinical legal education: a contradiction in terms or a win-win? Lessons from a UK pilot study.

This article provides an account of a project (funded by the Ferens Education Trust) which is designed to enhance clinical legal education (CLE) provision within my own institution, develop networks with local stakeholders, promote civic engagement, supplement over-stretched advice provision and elicit valuable research data. The intention in providing a ‘warts and all’ account of how this project developed is to offer an insight into the trials and tribulations of setting up such a scheme, to offer comfort to those who like me, are new to this kind of task and, to assist in efforts to avoid reinventing the wheel. Perhaps more importantly, it aims also to highlight the potential for CLE schemes to facilitate research

Effects of Activated Bt Transgene Products (Cry1Ab, Cry3Bb) on Immature Stages of the Ladybird Adalia bipunctata in Laboratory Ecotoxicity Testing

Insect-active Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins are expressed by several transgenic crop plants to control certain pests, but nontarget organisms such as ladybirds also can be exposed to these proteins in the field. We developed an improved ecotoxicity testing protocol and conducted feeding trials in a laboratory setting to test for possible adverse effects of different concentrations of microbially produced trypsin-activated Cry1Ab and Cry3Bb toxins on the coccinellid Adalia bipunctata. Larval/pupal mortality, development time, and overall body mass accumulation were recorded. Even at the lowest concentration (5 μg/ml), A. bipunctata larvae fed with the lepidopteran-active Cry1Ab toxin exhibited significantly higher mortality than the control group. In experiments with the coleopteran-active Cry3Bb, only a concentration of 25 μg/ml resulted in a marginally significantly higher mortality compared to the control. Both experiments revealed a slight decline in mortality at the highest concentration of 50 μg/ml, though this was statistically significant only in the Cry1Ab treatment. No differences were detected for development time and body mass of newly emerged adults. Dilutions of the expression vector pBD10—used as a control to exclude effects of the toxin production method—at concentrations between 10 and 100 μg/ml revealed no significant effects on either of the studied parameters. This suggests that the increased mortality of larvae in the toxin feeding trials was caused directly by the activated Bt toxins and raises questions regarding their commonly postulated specificity and their mode of action in A. bipunctata. Implications of the reported results for ladybird populations and their biological pest control functions in transgenic crop ecosystems are discusse