In article ,
Victoria Clare wrote:
Sacha wrote in news:BD651C93.3221%
:

Are you a lawyer, qualified
to give such advice?

Sacha has a point. Even lawyers may not be qualified to advise: lawyers
come in lots of flavours, most of them specialists in a particular area.

When I set up my small company, a qualified practicing lawyer who usually
deals with rather larger companies gave me incorrect information about Data
Protection Act registration.

(At least, I'm assuming he was wrong, as the govt helpline and website both
said he was. I'm not sure how they decide these things, but I'm hoping
that some sort of duel inside a big wire cage may be involved. With spears
or something. ;-) )

As someone who has had to become a partial expert as part of my job,
I am qualified to say that few lawyers have a clue what it means,
the official 'clarifications' conflict with it, the successive
Data Registrars have expressed bafflement and frustration over its
wording, there was one House of Lords case where 2 out of 3 judges
interpreted it to mean the converse of what the English said (using
the 'intent of Parliament' concept) and there is at least one
circumstance where it creates a criminal offence but explicitly
forbids anyone to prosecute the culprit. The last two apply to the
old Act - I would need to recheck for the current one.

Beyond that, it is doubtless a marvel of modern legislation.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.