But seriously...

The Legal Costs Blog prides itself on its honesty and integrity.  However, I have a small confession to make.  Our recent announcement of the launch of Legal Costs TV (see post) was a spoof announcement.  The clue was in the fact the announcement, that coincided with a press release, was made on 1^st April. 

I’ll spare their blushes by not naming some of those who fell for this one, including a number of high profile individuals. 

The Law Society Gazette enjoyed this one and reported it in the Obiter section (see link).

What was interesting about those taken in by the spoof is that they clearly thought the idea of a channel devoted entirely to the subject of legal costs law was plausible.  On reflection, they may be right.  In 2009 there were 764 members of the Association of Law Costs Draftsmen.  For Costs Lawyers they are required to undertake at least 12 hours Continuing Professional Development.  There are large numbers of solicitors, barristers and insurers who also need to keep up to date with developments in the legal costs world.  That is before you include the large number of unregulated costs draftsmen, legal costs negotiators, etc who also need to keep up to date with costs law.   

Although a TV station entirely devoted to the subject might be pushing it, the growing use of podcasts and webinars suggests that may be where the future lies.  If anyone was going to launch this, who better than the Legal Costs Blog?  Last month our website received over 22,500 unique visits and we have a growing number of subscribers to the Blog.  Perhaps the joke was on us.  Watch this space.

As the Law Society Gazette put it: “given the quality of some of the satellite channels out there, Legal Costs TV would probably still not be the worst thing on the box”.

For those who didn’t visit the spoof website, that our excellent IT consultants Computer Boffins designed, it can still be viewed here: www.legal-costs-tv.co.uk.