Wirral Council spent £2,451.60 with Weightmans LLP on legal advice after reading something about themselves in the press

Wirral Council spent £2,451.60 with Weightmans LLP on legal advice after reading something about themselves in the press

Wirral Council spent £2,451.60 with Weightmans LLP on legal advice after reading something about themselves in the press

                                                        

I will first start by declaring an interest in that I am a member of the press, however I am unsure if it is anything I’ve written about Wirral Council (or something in the local newspapers) that led to the matter I’m writing about below.

Last year Wirral Council received an invoice dated 26th June 2013 from a Liverpool based firm of solicitors called Weightmans LLP. Nothing unusual in that you might say! The invoice was for £2,451.60. So what was this invoice for? It was for “To our professional charges in advising in relation to press comment”.

Oh dear did Wirral Council read something in the press they didn’t like again? Did they not have anybody available to provide internal legal advice on the “press comment” and had to rack up nearly 16 hours of time charged at either £160/hour or £120/hour over this?

I hope it wasn’t about something I wrote on this blog! So what was written in the press at around this time about Wirral Council? Anyone care to enlighten me?

The committee is down as “FIN” which I presume means it was something related to financial matters. Sadly Wirral Council black out the names of the five people (or job descriptions) at Weightmans LLP that provided them with this expensive advice. Anyway reading press articles at £120/hour or £160/hour is nice work if you can get it isn’t it?

The invoice is included below.

Weightmans invoice Wirral Council press comment £2451 60 26 June 2013
Weightmans invoice Wirral Council press comment £2451 60 26 June 2013

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