• Home
  • About
  • Clinic
  • Training
  • Tenants
  • Landlord Law

The Landlord Law Blog

From landlord and tenant lawyer Tessa Shepperson

  • Home
  • Posts
  • News & comment
  • Cases
  • Tenants
    • The Renters Guide Website
    • 15 Places for tenant help
  • Clinic
  • Series
    • Analysis
    • should law and justice be free
    • HMO Basics
    • Tenancy Agreements 33 days
    • Airbnb
    • Grounds for Eviction
    • Tips

Should law and justice be free? Part 3: Our Complex System

September 13, 2017 by Tessa Shepperson

Should Law and Justice be Free?In my introduction to this series I gave you the main sources of our legal system

  • The statutes
  • The cases, and
  • The Civil Procedure Rules

In an ideal world, those three links would be enough to fully inform you about the law. Which in a way they do. But of course, in reality, they don’t.

Unless you have an understanding of how our legal system works, you will not have the skills to interpret that information properly and those links will just confuse you.  Even trained lawyers will struggle with some of the law and legal concepts found there.

Our legal system is incredibly complex and it is impossible for any one person to have a complete knowledge.

Why is the law so complex?

Well there are two main reasons:

1: Our law has been developing over many years

Its roots lie far back in the mists of time. When I started my History of Law blog  I began with William 1, the Conqueror, but he just built on the legal system that he already found here.

At the time of writing the blog only goes up to the end of the reign of Henry II (at the moment) but even in that relatively short period of time, we are able to see how the law changes over time and adapts itself as our society changes.

And that is the other reason

2: Our society is increasingly complex.

If we lived in a simple society a simple legal system would suffice. But we don’t. We live in a very complex society indeed.

Our law has to cover and regulate many things:

  • Land and property – including sale and purchase, leases (long and short), rights over land, and different types of mortgage
  • Contracts and business – including sale of goods, shipping law, agency law, and the rules around breach of contract
  • Companies – the complex rules that regulate how an ‘artificial person’ can be created, operate and eventually close down
  • Intellectual property – the rules that protect people’s rights in ideas, and those things which are not physical possessions
  • Health and safety – all that annoying ‘red tape’ which protects people from harm and – which we have seen from the Grenfell tragedy – is so important

And so on

With the best will in the world, any legal system created to regulate such a complex world must be complex itself.

But is it unnecessarily complex?

In my life as a lawyer, I have met some very clever people. And my experience is that the very cleverest are often able to express things very simply.

At the heart of every complex problem there lies a core issue which can, if you have sufficient skill, be set out simply and clearly.

It is the job of a lawyer to do this when advising a client (although many lawyers sadly fall short). It is also, I would suggest, the job of the people who draft our legislation.

If we had clearer legislation – would this not make life simpler and dealing with the law less expensive?

When laws cannot be understood

A classic example of unclear legislation is that regarding tenancy deposits. It has always been hard to follow. There is a lot of cross referencing and the language is unclear.

It is largely because of this, that there has been so much litigation over the interpretation of the wording, plus the law has been amended twice after Judges interpreted the words in a way that had not been intended by the government.

As a result, the law on deposits is incredibly opaque – difficult enough for a lawyer who knows the history of it but almost impossible for the ordinary landlord and tenant.

Who are after all the people actually using the system

Can anything be done about it?

Many of our problems with the law come from unclear drafting. .However, it does not have to be like this.

Legal contracts have also over the years been very difficult especially for consumers to read and understand. However, we now have the Unfair Terms rules (now part of the Consumer Rights Act 2015) and the campaign for plain English.

It is possible to draft a legal document in a way that can be understood. Many legal documents are now written in ‘plain English’ and it makes a terrific difference. I have done this with the Landlord Law tenancy agreements and this is one reason for their popularity.

We should do something similar with our legislation – in particular, legislation aimed at consumers. After all, if something can’t be understood, it can’t be used. Not without expensive legal help.

Brexit to the rescue?

Re-drafting all our laws would be an impossible task. However many laws are going to be scrutinised anyway as a result of Brexit and the repeal legislation. It would be nice if some effort could be made to put them into plain English. And to do this with all consumer related legislation moving forward.

The Law Commission could be used to help with this exercise. It would long term, be money well spent.

However even if we were to magically transform all our laws into Plain English, we would still need lawyers to help us use the system. In the next part, I will be looking at lawyers fees.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: Analysis Tagged With: should law and justice be free

Scroll down for the comments

IMPORTANT: Please check the date of the post above - remember, if it is an old post, the law may have changed since it was written.

You should always get independent legal advice before taking any action.

Notes on comments:

For personal landlord and tenant related problems, please use our >> Blog Clinic.
Note that we do not publish all comments, please >> click here to read our terms of use and comments policy. Comments close after three months.

Keep up with the news on Landlord Law blog!

To get posts sent direct to your email in box click here

About Tessa Shepperson

Tessa is a specialist landlord & tenant solicitor and the creator of this site! She is a director of Landlord Law Services which now hosts Landlord Law and other services for landlords and property professionals.

« How can tenants deal with property repairs when letting agents refuse to do anything?
How can I evict my tenants wife when she is not a tenant? »

Comments

  1. Ben Reeve-Lewis says

    September 13, 2017 at 10:15 AM

    I accept all you say above Tessa but the complexity of housing law often seems to create more problems than it solves. Landlords and tenants often have only scant knowledge of laws and regulation but are bound by them when things go even a little bit wrong and for that reason I think housing law could certainly do with some streamlining.

    Back in 1999 Lord Wolfe completely reformed the court procedures to allow greater access to justice. He said:-
    “Every citizen and business in England and Wales now has the ability to approach our legal system and ask for justice without always needing expert knowledge”.

    But then he added…..
    “Procedural reform can have only a limited impact on housing law . the main source of difficulty is the complexity of the substantive law itself. . . . The Department of the Environment should look at this as a matter of urgency. The Law Commission should be invited to carry out a review of housing law with a view to consolidating the various statutory and other provisions in a clear and straightforward form.”

    As you know it didnt happen and since 1999 things have gotten even more complex

Index of Posts:

Links will be added once the posts go live

  • Part 1 - Introduction
  • Part 2 - Court Fees
  • Part 3 - Our Complex System
  • Part 4 - Lawyers Fees
  • Part 5 - Legal Aid
  • Part 6 - Online / technology Solutions
  • Part 7 - Conclusion

Sources of Law

  • Statute
  • Case Law
  • Civil Procedure Rules

Other relevant posts:

  • Why does housing law have to be so complicated?
  • How much does it cost to evict a tenant?

Get you FREE Ebook

Click to get your Free Ebook

>> Click Here for Your Free Copy

Disclaimer

The purpose of this blog is to provide information, comment and discussion.

Although Tessa, or guest bloggers, may from time to time, give helpful comments to readers' questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts.

Any comments or suggestions provided by Tessa or any guest bloggers should not, therefore be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified lawyer regarding any actual legal issue or dispute.

Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating a lawyer-client relationship (apart from the Fast Track block clinic service - so far as the questioners only are concerned).

Please also note that any opinion expressed by a guest blogger is his or hers alone, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tessa Shepperson, or the other writers on this blog.

Cookies

You can find out more about our use of 'cookies' on this website here.

Associated sites

Landlord Law Services
The Renters Guide
Eco Landlords
Your Law Store

Legal

Landlord Law Blog is © 2006 – 2021 Tessa Shepperson.

Note that Tessa is an introducer for Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers and will get a commission from sales made via links on this website.

© 2006–2022 Tessa Shepperson | Rainmaker Platform | Contact Page | Privacy | Log in

This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.
I accept