Archive...

[Amethyst]

Recently we have experienced a number of malicious attacks on our domain and server. It isn't targeted specifically at LegalBeagles, it's random, they just happen to have picked on us, so nothing to panic about or conspiracy theorise over xx

We are working on stopping it as much as we can and ensuring that our servers can cope when the attacks occur, rather than instantly falling over.

Sincere apologies - I know how frustrating it is.

xxx

[Legal Beagles]

About LegalBEAGLES

Who we are

Our Team is made up of dedicated and enthusiastic individuals who are experienced in consumer issues. Most of them are fighting (or have successfully fought) their own battles against the major financial institutions.
All Team Members are volunteers who provide support in their own time, and our services are free to members.


What we do

With our experience, knowledge and resources we will be at the forefront of the battles against unfair practices, whether they be from the banks or any other organisation that feels they can use unfair business practices to take money from our members.

The site is developing all the time, with new and improved legal strategies and advice for the self litigating consumer. We can provide you with the tools to fight your own battles, or support you directly in any way that you need. We also provide referrals to other agencies where this is appropriate.

We are currently exploring new areas of activity as well as building links with similar organisations around the world that are fighting the same injustices, and often the same global organisations.



FORUM RULES

You can read all our rules and policies in the stickies at the top of our Using the Forum area

There are specific areas for off topic discussion - The Lamp Post - and the VIP Members Area.

While the above applies to all forums, the Stag's Pants forum in the VIP Members area is considered a Private Members Club; an Adults Only Bar and as such has slightly more lenient rules as the posts/threads are not for general consumption. Therefore, existing members should take this into consideration when signing up to Stag's Pants and should not enter if they are easily offended .

Posts can be edited my the original poster within 3 days of posting. Following this time users will need to contact a Team Member should a post require editing.



CHATBOX

The Chat box is only visible and useable by Legal Beagle Administrators, Team members, VIP and Working Group Members.

Excessive swearing, bypassing of the swear filter, abuse of other members or the site, or other sites, racist, vulgar and inappropriate comments may result in the facility being removed from the user immediately. The Team will give a warning where applicable.

Comments made in the Chatbox will not be read immediately - and theres no guaranteed answer - if you need to contact a team member, admin or other site user please use the PM facility.

History of the chatbox is stored for up to 24 hours and can be viewed by any user of the chatbox.



PRIVATE MESSAGES

The Private Message system is useable by all registered users of this site.

Comments made in Private Messages can only be viewed by the sender and recipient/s of the message.

Abuse of other members or the site, or other sites, racist, vulgar and inappropriate comments, spamming, bullying and/or sexual harrassment should be reported to the Administrators who may conduct an investigation and this may result in the facility being removed from the user immediately.



PROFILE COMMENTS


The Profile Messaging system is visible and useable by all registered users of this site.

Excessive swearing, bypassing of the swear filter, abuse of other members or the site, or other sites, racist, vulgar and inappropriate comments may result in the facility being removed from the user immediately. The Team will give a warning where applicable.

If you wish to contact a member privately please use the PM system.



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If you have a grievance or issue with the Team, the Site, Admin, or another User and would like to discuss it please contact the Administrators.


ADMINISTRATORS/SITE OWNERS

Administrators look after the nuts and bolts of the site and have ultimate say on things.

Amethyst - Site Owner
Celestine - Site Owner
EXC - Site Owner

TEAM MEMBERS

Team members look after the site and its members and have the ability to unapprove unsuitable posts, move and merge threads and implement any moderation policy as required.

Tools - Site Admin/Webmaster
Enaid - Site Team
pt2537 - Site Team

VIP MEMBERS

VIP members have an area for themselves for posting things which are a little sensitive to be posted in the public part of the site - in depth work on claims and have access to a chat box which helps foster the community spirit we are so proud of on LB. Posts contained within this forum are strictly confidential and are not to be shared without the express permission of Amethyst or Celestine . The funding for the site comes from donations and subscriptions to the VIP area, and many VIP members are long standing and respected members of the site.


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OUR DOMAIN NAMES

LegalBEAGLES.co.uk
LegalBEAGLES.org
LegalBEAGLES.info
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OTHER INFORMATION

We are Hosted by Lodge Information Services Ltd

LegalBEAGLES™ is a trading name of Celame LLP - Company No. OC389148 - Registered Office: Hadfields, Bottom Road, Buckland Common, Tring, Herts HP23 6NH.



Kate Briscoe

• Known as Celestine on LegalBEAGLES®
• Partner at Celame LLP
• Owner & Administrator at LegalBEAGLES®
• Litigation Executive at Howlett Clarke Solicitors, Brighton

Kate is a consumer law Litigation Executive with a specialism in Consumer Credit Act 1974; which she uses primarily to challenge legal demands issued by banks and bulk debt purchasers.
Kate co-founded and manages the popular Legal Beagles consumer law forum, through which she has built up a formidable knowledge of all legal areas affecting UK consumers. She also works with UK regulators such as the Ministry of Justice and the Financial Conduct Authority to improve and develop the rights of consumers.
Kate can advise on most matters pertaining to consumer credit debt, especially disputes involving credit cards, loans, store cards and hire purchase agreements. She has an impressive record of settlements of statutory demands for bankruptcy and is able to represent consumers facing litigation from debt collectors and financial providers.
Client feedback across the forum and reviews on Solicitors.info

Sharon Coleman

• Partner at Celame LLP
• Known as Amethyst on LegalBEAGLES®
• Owner & Administrator at LegalBEAGLES®

Sharon co-founded and manages the Legal Beagles consumer law forum and website, through which she has built up an excellent knowledge of legal, financial and consumer issues. She is responsible for all site issues and is a driving force behind many of the forums activities and campaigns.

Nick Spooner

• Partner at Celame LLP
• Known as EXC on LegalBEAGLES®
• Owner & VIP Member at LegalBEAGLES®

Nick is a passionate campaigner on all consumer issues and is responsible for much of the communications between LegalBeagles and regulators. He regularly attends relevant court hearings and government committee meetings to report first hand on issues that may affect UK consumers in the future.


Paul Tilley

• Site Team Member at LegalBEAGLES
• Known as PT2537 on LegalBEAGLES®
• Litigation Executive at Howlett Clarke Solicitors, Brighton

Paul’s area of expertise covers Loans, store cards, credit cards, catalogues and hire purchase agreements. If it’s regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 then you can be pretty sure that he covers it. He advises on claims under s75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 where subject to certain conditions, creditors can be held liable where goods and services have been purchased using credit. He also advises clients on compliance issues arising out of default notices, notice of sums in arrears and termination notices and in respect of time orders and other consumer protection measures.
Client feedback across the forum and reviews on Solicitors.info
Noteable cases

Keith Harrison v Link Financial Limited [2011] EWHC 1653 (QB)
HFO Capital (Ireland) Limited v Roland Wegmuller (Birmingham County Court)
Santander Consumer Finance v Diana Mayhew (Shoreditch & Clerkenwell County Court)


Julian Siddle

• Site Team Member at LegalBEAGLES®
• Known as Tools on LegalBEAGLES®

Julian is a team member at LegalBEAGLES. He handles press enquiries and is the Webmaster on the site. He is involved in campaigning to raise awareness, detect, prevent and disrupt online vehicle purchase fraud. Julian is responsible for working with content on the website, increasing reputation, web presence and reach. Administrator, Social Media Marketing, Press, Stakeholder & Partnership Engagement and Campaign Management working closely with various agencies and companies.


Enaid ‘Nelly’

• Site Team Member at LegalBEAGLES®

Enaid is a team member at LegalBEAGLES. She is an integral part of the forum and is an ambassador for Carers UK.

[Amethyst]

Please see our Policies and Legal Information here.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE

--> Terms of Use
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LegalBeagles® is the trading name of CELAME (UK) LIMITED ( 09220332 )
Registered Address: 25 Moorgate, London, England, EC2R 6AY
VAT registration number 206 9740 02
Contact: 0300 303 2020
Email: admin@legalbeagles.info

[Turboman]

How to post a Screen Print

On occasions it can be useful to post up a screen print when you are having difficulty with a particular program,
and especially, this method will be used to post up spreadsheet queries in the Join-In Excel Basic Tuition Thread rather than actual .xls files.

Most of the readers will know how to do this and may use sophisticated Photo Edit programs such as Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

However, these notes are for the less experienced user and I will demonstrate using the program Paint which is on all Windows based PC's under the Accessories category.


We will also have a look at the Snipping Tool available on Vista/Windows 7.

I have researched add-on snipping tools for XP operating systems, and all want to add toolbars and alter your PC - so I am not taking the responsibility of reccommending one.

Soooooo

Overall Requirements re Capture/Cropping/Annotation
Printscreen Method and Cropping & Annotation before saving with the program Paint
Snipping Tool and Annotation before saving with the Snipping Tool

　
Overall Requirements re Capture/Cropping/Annotation

I'm specifically going to use the capture of spreadsheet images for this discussion, but the principles apply for the capture of any screenshot--be it from Word or Turbocad for instance-or a straight capture of part of this forum's current screens.

In our Excel Tuition Thread-I will show you how to annotate the general screen area using text boxes and the drawing toolbar-but I demonstrate here how to do it also with both the PrintScrn method thro' Paint and the Snipping Tool


Printscreen Method and Cropping & Annotation before saving with the program Paint

This is the method we will use for XP Operating System PC's --- although it is equally applcable to Vista and Windows 7.

Step 1

To copy the window or screen contents use the Print Screen key at top right of keyboard.

To make a copy of the active window press ALT + Print Screen Key.
To copy the entire screen as it appears on your monitor, simply press Print Screen key

This effectively then places the screen image on the Clipboard.
We now need to save this as a JPG file before we can post it in a message using either Attachments or Photobucket-although for our Excel Thread , we are going to use Photobucket.
　
Step 2

Load the program Paint.
On the top menu bar click Edit then Paste
We now have the image to further work on if required.

Step 3

Annotation using the TEXT tool if required like below & crop if required-
by dragging on the bottom sizing handles. See Paint help screens. or

use the Select tool to highlight the bit we want THEN EDIT then COPY then FILE|NEW (discard existing if asked) then Paste then Save As



Step 4
Now save the file with a unique name in your favourite location. This should be saved as a JPG file - see the drop down box.


　


Snipping Tool and Annotation before saving with the Snipping Tool

This method is only available to Vista and Windows 7 users.
It has the advantage of an inbuilt cropping method and integrated text annotation and is very easy to use.　

see here for instructions from Microsoft


Snipping Tool for Windows 7

Snipping Tool for Vista

I think they are easy to follow, but post up if any questions

[Turboman]

Re: How to post a Screen Print

Never mind Wendy

I'm going a bit out of order -- got to go back to post 1 yet---but by all means post now if you like --as I've got posts 1 & 2 reserved for me now-which is enough.

But this is a simple example of a screenprint cropped and annotated by Paint ---- and linked to my Photobucket Account

[Nibbler]

Re: How to post a Screen Print

Just thought I'd mention this. For anyone using Linux, there is a all-in-one solution for most cases.

Shutter - Feature-rich Screenshot Tool

Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program. You can take a screenshot of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website – apply different effects to it, draw on it to highlight points, and then upload to an image hosting site, all within one window. Shutter is free, open-source, and licensed under GPL v3.

[Amethyst]

We have become aware of a number of instances where internet users have posted online / emailed documents to others without removal of their own personal details.

ALWAYS REMOVE YOUR FULL NAME / ADDRESS / TELEPHONE NUMBERS / ACCOUNT REFERENCE / COURT CLAIM NUMBER / DATE OF BIRTH from ALL documents posted online - whether on this site, another, an image hosting site or in an email to someone.

If anyone contacts you and asks you to send them unedited/unredacted documents then DO NOT SEND THEM ANY THING and report it to site team (if it is on here) At the very least REDACT your documents before sending them, as that information is NOT required to check the majority of things out on documents, unless they are acting for you in a professional capacity (such as your solicitor).

Please be fully aware we will continue to remove any documents that reveal personal information as soon as we become aware. People are actually very good at reporting personal information left on documents to team and we act as quickly as possible to take them down.

I will see if someone can do a decent guide to uploading documents to the site and how to redact personal info (I use paint and just rub it out with the rubber bitty thing before resaving as a jpg or png then uploading to the site.)

Covering up info before scanning with thin paper / marker pen often doesn't work, and placing blocks over pages in PDF format is also a bit hit and miss. If you have lots of documents I find editing them separately in paint and then printing to PDF works well, although can be a little time consuming.

Sorry to sound like a grumpy old madam, but it is important.aw:



Metadata

Whenever you create, open, or save a document in Microsoft Word, the document may store information — known as metadata — that you had no intention of including or disclosing (this also applies to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft PowerPoint® files). Metadata is used for a variety of legitimate purposes, and it adds functionality to the editing, viewing, filing, and retrieving capabilities of Microsoft Office. However, if some of this information is passed on to inappropriate parties (for example, opposing counsel), that disclosure can create adverse consequences for you and your client. In order to avoid these consequences, you should make yourself familiar with the types of metadata contained in your documents and take steps to remove it whenever necessary.
Some metadata is readily accessible through the user interface of each Office program. Other metadata is only accessible through extraordinary means, such as opening a document in a low-level, binary file editor.
Some examples of metadata that may be stored in your documents

Your name
Your initials
Your company or organization name
The name of your computer
The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document
Other file properties and summary information
Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects
The names of previous document authors
Document revisions
Document versions
Template information
Hidden text or cells
Personalized views
Comments

[Inca]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

with the rubber bitty thing loving the techyspeak Ame msl:

[jon1965]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

If it is a letter that has arrived I scan as a jpg then open with mspaint. Edit out the bits then use an online PDF converter to convert jpg to pdf.

I think this is the one I use but it is on my laptop so I will double check
http://jpg-to-pdf-free.en.softonic.com/

[Amethyst]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

Ahhhh, I have CutePDF installed as a 'printer' so I just print stuff to PDF rather than paper

with the rubber bitty thing loving the techyspeak Ame msl:

Well I am master webmaster of the universe you know :doggieyes: aw:

[labman]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

I use the same Ame, then Adolix split and merge to merge several pdf's into one (or vice versa), and finally (never actually used this) digisigner to add or remove digital signatures from pdf's - I guess a pdf can identify someone personally from the digital signature, but I'm not techy enough to know.

Rather worryingly is how easy it would be to change someone's digital signature to make it look as though a document has eminated from somewhere it has not. This could be very dangerous in the hands of a loony! :tinysmile_twink_t2:

[jon1965]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

That is always something to think about. If you have a registered version of something it can often have your name in the properties. I have downloaded a PDF to view from a site and I have a name on it geoff someone. Same goes for MS word. Hence when you send a template letter by email if they check the properties they know which website you have sent it from

[Amethyst]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

I always copy paste any template letters onto a new word doc anyways.

[jon1965]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

An example...some templates that I have downloaded from another website in word . When you click on properties it say author.The xxxxx family which is the surname of the owner of that site. It also names the website

[Amethyst]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

oops, our consultation responses probably have silly things like 'Shazzas Puter' on then.

Who am I to lecture you lot on internet security eh ! aw::wub: