Nearly a week into Lockdown number 2 and what does it mean for us? Working from home full-time again, being with our partners 24 hours a day and sharing work spaces (or not if you are lucky) again, back to the Zoom or Teams chats rather than in the office chats, receiving work electronically and sending it back electronically. I was going to say we have all adapted again, but, I think we have pivoted, rather than adapted.
We have been lucky in that we were already set up to work from home prior to the last lockdown, so we just have to get used to being at home a little more and I certainly appreciate that I have regained control of the dining table and space whilst my husband is relegated to our youngest’s bedroom (don’t worry, he has a proper office chair up there).
For me, the main bonus has been no home-schooling, apart from a few days before and after half term due to a child in my youngest’s class testing positive (all is well now) and a few days was definitely doable when I knew it was very short term!! We were also very fortunate that her school had just done some training in a new online system for working from home, that very week, so it all went rather smoothly.
After being in the office on a Friday every week with 3 of my colleagues, I am missing my ‘in person’ chats with them already, but we still have our weekly department chat and a weekly firm chat, which are invaluable and we are still having Paramount quizzes via Zoom as well for our partners and children too (I may at some point actually win a prize…).
The SCCO has been doing a great job with approval of e-filing Bills and sending out Final Costs Certificates in Court of Protection matters; on some occasions we have been receiving approvals within 24 hours and receiving FCC’s in this time too and we know the SCCO have been working over the weekend to catch up and doing their best with assessment of Court of Protection Bills.
We have seen a rise in requests for Probate costing; we can cost your non-contentious Probate matters very swiftly, whether it’s because you need an independent ‘set of eyes’ or because you haven’t had chance to bill it yourself or because you may have under-recorded your time on your ledger. Requests for Court of Protection Bills have also steadily increased as have requests for Bills in Family and Litigation.
So really, for us, despite Lockdown number 2, it’s business as usual, we are still receiving files electronically or being granted some access to our Client’s case management systems, which allows us to continue working seamlessly. We are also receiving files and returning files by courier and DX as before and can often arrange to collect files from Client’s houses rather than their office.
If we can assist you in any way, please do get in touch with me here.
Christine Marsh, Private Client Director
Direct Dial: 01228 815391
Email: [email protected]